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Something You Should Know About - Wine Ratings
On this web site and in our store, you will often see wine rating scores expressed in point values. We thought you'd like to know more about this practice.
First, there are over 250,000 new wines introduced each year. Some are new offerings/labels, but most are just the latest vintage of an existing label. No one person, or organization can review all of these wines. In fact, for most wines, unless the producer is well known or submits their wines, reviewers will never have the chance to sample them. Net result, only a very small percentage of new offerings ever gets reviewed by the major "gurus."
Who Are These Rating Gurus?
Well lots of publications, organizations and bloggers rate wines. Some focus on specific regions. Others specialize in specific varietals or styles. Still others just review by price range. In our opinion, the top three, broad-based rating resources in the U.S. are:
The Wine Advocate (WA) - An independent consumer's guide to fine wines,
headed by Robert Parker with more than a dozen contributing editors.
International Wine Cellar (IWC) - A bi-monthly journal published by Stephan
Tanzer, who reviews (with a few other staff members) over 10,000 wines a year.
Wine Spectator (WS) - The leading U.S. consumer publication on wines and
wine-related topics. A number of in-house editors (each focusing on specific
regions and/or styles) generate hundreds of reviews each issue.
So, Get to the Points
Each of these groups uses a 100-point scale to rate wines. With a few minor variations, all use the same methods and descriptions . . .
95 to 100 Points - Extraordinary Wines of profound and complex character,
displaying all the attributes of a classic wine in its variety. Best of the best.
90 to 94 Points - Outstanding Wines of exceptional complexity & character.
In short, these wines are terrific.
85 to 89 Points - Very Good Wines displaying noticeable finesse, flavor &
character with no noticeable flaws. Solid offerings for all occasions.
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