{"id":20972,"date":"2018-07-01T12:54:05","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T12:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=20972"},"modified":"2018-07-01T12:54:05","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T12:54:05","slug":"should-wine-scores-be-absolute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/uncategorized\/should-wine-scores-be-absolute","title":{"rendered":"Should wine scores be absolute?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another article about wine scoring! It’s such a tedious topic, I know, but it’s an important one. Let’s recap:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Scoring is flawed but it is useful. A tasting note without a score doesn’t tell us how the wine stacks up. If I give a score and you are familiar with my scoring patterns, you can tell how much I liked the wine.<\/li>\n
  2. There has been rampant score inflation in recent years. Wineries don’t quote the score from the critic they most respect, they quote the highest score. So many critics are dishing out ludicrous scores. In Australia, 95 points is no longer a score to crow about.<\/li>\n
  3. Scoring isn’t an exact science and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.<\/li>\n
  4. Scores shouldn’t be the result of a reductionistic, complicated method but should simply be an overall, holistic assessment of the wine as it tastes now.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So the point of this piece? Should wine scores be absolute?<\/p>\n

    That is, should a 95 point Bordeaux be the qualitative equivalent of a 95 point Douro red or a 95 point Chilean Cabernet?<\/p>\n

    I think: yes. I can’t see a sensible alternative. Should a critic use a relative scale, where the best in each region, or style, or grape variety gets the top score, but where scores are not comparable across classes? No, that would be complicated and a bit silly.<\/p>\n

    If a wine scores 95 points it is an amazing wine, and in the same peer group as other 95 point wines. This would mean that when I visit a classic, well established region I might be dishing out more high scores than a region that’s only just finding its feet.<\/p>\n

    This absolute scoring creates a level playing field for all wine. It means a wine from Portugal can be seen to be the qualitative equivalent of a classic from Burgundy or Barolo. That’s egalitarian, although some critics are still biased towards the famous established regions.<\/p>\n

    Of course, when I say my score is absolute, it is only absolute for my palate. Other critics have different preferences. You find the critics who resonate with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Another article about wine scoring! It’s such a tedious topic, I know, but it’s an important one. Let’s recap: Scoring is flawed but it is useful. A tasting note without…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20972"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20972\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20973,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20972\/revisions\/20973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}