Hello my dear friends! It's Wednesday again so here we are! Let's talk a bit about the amazing world of wine. Today's topic is going to be wine ratings which in my opinion, from a practical perspective, can be often confusing. With that said, ratings can also help you feel confident about buying wine anywhere when you have a grasp on how to interpret them. Needless to say that for wine makers those golden numbers on the label mean a great deal as a 100-point score can fully change any wine's trajectory.
Is Wine Spectator (WS) better than Robert Parker (RP)? What does Decanter mean? Who is Tim Atkin? Guía Peñín? Should I buy a bottle of wine even if it isn't rated? How high the rate should be? What does it represent or tell me about the wine? Who are the people making these judgements? Bear with me... Nowadays wine ratings are based on a 100-point scale, created and popularized by Robert Parker, an influential wine critic who is now retired. He created this system so that wines that were relying on their reputation for popularity would be tasted and compared to other wines using a similar criterion. Parker's reports were being published on a newsletter that over time became what we now know as 'Wine Advocate'.
Decanter and Wine Spectator magazines soon followed with their own systems. Although there are a few rating systems that use a 20-point scale (e.g., Jancis Robinson and Vinum magazine), Parker’s 100-point based system is still the most common.
Apart from several medals (including platinum) in different contests and blind tastings , 200 Monges Reserva 2010 scored 92 points with Tim Atkin and 92 with Peñín Guide. It makes us very proud to represent wines of this exceptional quality!
How is a wine rated? Well, typically, a group of experts blind taste wine in similar conditions. The tasters are connoisseurs within a particular denomination of origin, country or region. The process and information given to the judges vary from one system to another. Sometimes they are allow to information on the price, region, and technical details. Some others, knowing the varietal only will be more than enough to qualify the wine. In my opinion the latter feels more fair. Information such as price and winery can bias opinions with more ease. All wine regions or grape varietals generally have a style or taste, known as typicity, which expresses the authenticity of the wine, reflecting the soil, climate and grape varietal. This is exactly what judges are looking for. The scores you regularly seen on the label correspond to one of the most popular rating systems in the industry right now: Wine Spectator (WS), Robert Parker (RP)/Wine Advocate (WA), Wine Enthusiast (WE), Decanter (D), Tim Atkins (TA) and James Suckling (JS). Punctuations should represent excellent, great or good wines. Wine Spectator’s 80-89 designates a good to very good wine, while Wine Advocate’s 80-89 is a barely above average to very good wine. This makes it difficult to compare different ratings across the board so let’s take quick glimpse at the major ratings.
Wine Spectator reviews more than 15,000 wines a year in blind tastings conditions. Any wine above 95 points is considered a 'classic'. Wines with superior character and style regularly score 90-94. Wines that fall between 80-89 scores are wines with special quality to solid, well-made wines respectively. Anything under 79 falls into average category.
Wine Advocate is now officially named Robert Parker Wine Advocate which is a magazine that has nine full-time reviewers reviewing up to 30,000 wines. On the bottle it can show as RP, WA or RPWA. Wine Advocate conducts large scale tastings with peer groups. The judges in this case do not blind-taste since they are given information on the region, varietal and vintage. Extraordinary wines are punctuated from 96-100. Outstanding would be 90-95. In my modest opinion anything falling under 90 is still great, being 70-79 absolute average.
Avelino Vegas 100 Anniversary 2016, the only Spanish wine to obtain the platinum medal, the highest score awarded by the International Wine Awards organized by TEXOM . This annual competition is one of the most prestigious in the US. In this particular edition more than 2.000 wines from all over the world were entered. Tim Atkin scored this wine 91 points and Peñín Guide 92. An absolute gem!
Wine Enthusiast performs blind tastings in groups. The critics are given vintage, variety or appellation but never price or producer. Wine Enthusiast tastes around 25,000 wines per year. Wine scoring 98 to 100 are magnificent, classic. 90-97 could be considered superb, excellent. 87-89 means very good and 80-86 goes from acceptable to very good.
Decanter also performs blind tastings in peer groups. The critics are given some criteria on the wine, such as region, varietal and vintage. They also assign “medals,” which refers to the score a wine needs to achieve at the Decanter World Wine Awards and the Decanter Asia Wine Awards in order to gain a commended, bronze, silver or gold Medal. Some gold medal winners will go on to achieve platinum medals, or “best in class” awards, when pitted against their gold medal winning peers in a particular category – such as red Bordeaux blend. Neesdless to say that anything scoring 98-100 (gold medal) is exceptional. Buy it if you can afford it! 95-97 (also gold) is outstanding. Silver comes in between 90-94, these are highly recommended wines. Recommended wines are 86-89, these are bronze winners. Under 83, go with caution!
Mr. Suckling (James Suckling) reviews about 6,000-10,000 wines per year, and the website (jamessuckling.com) reviews about 18,000 per year. In 2020, 133 wines were scored 99 or 100. Mr. Suckling is a wine critic and former European editor for Wine Spectator magazine. He reviews what he calls “the best wines of the world”. He and his team use a rating system based on color, aromas, body, structure and overall impression. He performs mostly blind tastings. 95-100 means 'must buy', outstanding. 90-95 is still a great wine, should but it too. Under 90, good wine, worth buying but as it goes low be wary! Tim Atkin (TA) is a British Master of Wine, a wine journalist, a judge of several international wine competitions and a photographer and works now the Wine Editor of Off Licence News and writes for various other magazines including The World of Fine Wine, Gourmet Traveller and The Economist's Intelligent Life. He has also contributed to Wine-Searcher's news & features section. His system has recently gained lots of recognition and credibility in the world of wine. Over the years, Atkin has won numerous wine writing awards, including the Glenfiddich Wine Writer Award, the Wine Guild of the United Kingdom's 'Wine Columnist of the Year' and Lanson 'Wine Writer of the Year' (several times each). In 1994, he was the very first recipient of the Wines of France Award. Atkin's website, TimAtkin.com has also proved successful, and was named 'Wine Website of the Year' at the 2013 Louis Roederer Awards – a highly prestigious commendation. His scores range between 100-75, but 50% of the cases fall from 88 – 93 points. The higher the better, of course.
I don't want to finish without mentioning the Peñín Guide (another 100-point scale user), for its relevance to Spanish wines, probably the most popular here in Miami. Peñín Guide is the most comprehensive Spanish wine guide in the world, with editions in Spanish, English, German and Chinese, it is the most widely used tool for amateurs and professionals to make purchasing decisions. The first edition was published in 1990 under the name of Vinos y Bodegas de España, and was edited by José Peñín, current honorary president of the company, at a time when access to information on wineries and wines was very limited. José Peñín managed to bring together all the relevant data for consumers in a guide that served as an orientation for all those who wanted to explore the world of wine. Over the years, this Guide has became the Vademecum of Spanish Wine, with more than 11,500 tastings per year. In addition to Spanish wines, each year the tasting team evaluates wines from other countries, such as Mexico, Argentina or Chile, and products such as spirits or vermouth.
Don't get too fuzzy...
Wine is subjective, which is why wine scores will vary with different sources. As Tim Atkins said: 'punctuation is just an opinion'. As you continue to explore different wines, you will begin to settle into one of the ratings systems as you begin to identify with it over the other systems. Drinking wine should be fun, and it doesn’t need to be too complicated. But if studying wine ratings is your brand of fun, then dive right in there! Take time to figure out which critics you align with and don’t get fixated on the ratings as a whole. Additionally, while points are important and will give you an idea where the wine ranks with certain critics, it is important to realize that 75% of wine globally is not rated. And that, my friends, leaves room for you to explore and judge for yourself from the exceptional wines with us!
Wine is subjective, so the wine score will vary based on different sources. As Tim Atkins said: "the score is just an opinion." My advice is explore different wines, you will begin to settle into one of the rating systems spontaneously. Wine should always be fun and it doesn't have to be too complicated. And remember that although points are important and will give you an idea of where wine ranks with certain critics, 75% of wine globally is not rated. And that, my friends, leaves so much room to explore and judge for yourself!
And that's a wrap! Next Wednesday, continuing this post, we will give you news on our best rated wines of 2021! See you again in 7 days!
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