How Wine Ratings Work: Step By Step Tips For Scoring Wine Yourself

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How Wine Ratings Work: Step By Step Tips For Scoring Wine Yourself

Filed under: Wine Tours

By: Chris Custer

It's been said that every wine-lover falls into one of two categories: those who love wine ratings, and those who hate them. But if you've been around the wine world any length of time you know there's no avoiding wine ratings. They are - for better or for worse - part of the wine game.

So, if we can't live without them, we might as well learn how to live with them - and put them in their place. To that end, I want to give you a little background on how ratings came about, what they mean, and then finally how to rate wine yourself.

The most popular wine ratings system out there is the 100-point system. This is the brain-child of Robert Parker, well-known wine critic and founder of The Wine Advocate Journal.

In Parker's 100-point system, also used by Wine Spectator, no wine is given a score below 50.

Though other types of rating systems have popped up as well - Decanter magazine's Five-point system - we're going to focus on the good ole Parker system for our wine ratings.

Here's how Wine Spectator scores wine:

95-100 Classic, a great wine.
90-94 Outstanding, a wine of superior character and style.
80-89 Good to very good, a wine with special qualities.
70-79 Average, a drinkable wine that may have minor flaws.
60-69 Below average, drinkable but not recommended.
50-59 Poor, undrinkable, not recommended.

That's how to read and interpret the pro's opinions of the wine your looking at buying. And yes, it's very subjective. That's why using your own wine ratings to judge wine is so important.

Here's a summary of some guidelines that Ed Gandia of www.BestWineBargains.com offers for judging wine yourself:

1. Look at the color by tilting the glass 45-degrees against a white background. You're looking for deep red tones in red wines and golden tones in white wines. Don't score.

2. Take a good sniff by swirling the wine and sticking your nose into the glass a couple of times. Write down what you smell and give it a grade of 1-10.

3. Now it's time to taste. Take a sip and hold the wine in your mouth and swish it around a little. Do this for a few seconds and try to describe the flavor. Give it a rating 1-10.

4. What's your overall impression? Based on everything you've just experienced, score it between 1-5.

Now add the scores and multiply by 4. That's your 100-point scale score. Cool, huh?

Wine ratings are a fact of wine-life. Most wine experts agree that ratings are a necessary evil. Josh Greene of Wine %26 Spirits said, "We believe that the only reason (consumer) wine magazines exist in this market is to help people decide about wines they want to buy and sort through a lot of the market in advance."

That's true. However, now that you know how wine ratings work, let your own palate determine how "right" these experts are in their wine ratings. That's what great wine tasting is all about.

Chris Custer is a freelance writer and wine enthusiast. Did you find this article helpful? You can find more great wine information and accessories at http://www.wineenthusiast.com.