One of the most divisive subjects in wine is the issue of scoring. Although he may not have invented the concept, Robert Parker with his 100 point scale intended to give consumers a simple way of discovering good wines. And consumers listened. So much so that many winemakers changed their style to make wines that they thought Parker would like in the hope of getting a high score. It has recently become fashionable amongst wine bloggers to diss Robert Parker and his 100 point scale but do these sort of wine scores have a place in wine writing?
Well yes. And no.
It all depends on who you are writing for. If you are writing for the wine trade then a purely objective score can be useful. I still think 100 is too fine a resolution though. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone score a wine under 75 which kind of makes a mockery of the whole scale. For most consumers, a 100 point scale is meaningless. Do they really know the difference between a 91 point wine and a 92 point wine? Do they care? They’re both still good, right? I think most consumers don’t need or want anything more than a 5 point scale. On this blog I just use good, really good or wow but I’m essentially using a 5 point scale. In my head my scoring system works like this:
- Terrible. Faulty. Disgusting. I very rarely have the misfortune to drink wines like this and I would certainly never want to recommend them so I don’t write about them.
- Bad. Poorly made. Overly manipulated. Bland. I think a lot of the wines made on industrial scale wines fall into this category. Again I don’t write about them. I want this blog to be a happy place full of great wines.
- Good. Interesting. Well made. Now we’re getting somewhere. A wine that smells and tastes good, has some complexity and character. The sort of wine that I would go out and buy by the caseload (if I had the cash) and would drink every day (if I had the cash).
- Really good. Complex. Intense. Exciting. The sort of wine that I would save for a date night or some other occasion that justifies opening something a bit special. This stuff is probably going to be a bit more expensive and/or rarer so I keep these wines as a bit of a treat.
- Wow. Mind-blowing. Life-changing. Things will never be the same after trying one of these wines. You will love them and curse them in equal measures because now you just can’t go back to drinking the same old stuff you used to. These I save for really special occasions and live in a separate wine rack surrounded by barbed wire and infra red alarms in case anyone even goes near them without my permission.
And what about tasting wines blind? The received wisdom is that wines should be tasted blind and scored solely on what’s in the glass like some kind of pseudo-scientific experiment. But wine is not like any other drink. To me it really does matter who the producer is, their ethos, what methods they have used etc. I enjoy a wine more if I know that it has been made in a sustainable way. I take enjoyment from the quirky little stories about winemakers. So the bank wouldn’t lend you the money and you had to beg, borrow and steal in order to make your wine. When you did, you named it ‘Fat Pig’ after the bank manager who turned you down. Love it.
Wine is not like other products. It is not manufactured and confected (well, the good stuff isn’t anyway) and it deserves to be treated differently. What do you think?
Vino Vero 