Ratings..today everything is based on a rating system of either stars, thumb or points. Siskel & Ebert were notorious for destroying movies with their thumbs down "send them to the lions" movie ratings. As a child I would get so upset to see them kill movie after movie that I wanted my mom to take me to go see, but I tuned into their show every Saturday afternoon to see the coming attractions and to hear what they would say. Although, I have would agree on their ratings for Ishstar.
Yelp and other similar websites are changing businesses everyday especially with mobile technology. Next time you're out dining and see people taking pictures of their food, chances are that they are on some website praising or destroying the place.
Wine ratings go the same root. There are many critics out there that have a huge following of loyal readers that hang on every word they publish about a wine. These wine afficiondos can make or break your vineyard with one swipe of the pen. Some winemakers consider it an honor to have their wines reviewed by any critic, other vineyards choose not to play the games and simply refuse to ever submit their wines for criticism.
The most popular rating system for wines seems to be what is called the Parker Point Scale, made famous by "The Wine Advocate by Robert Parker" publication. In this scale, the overall rating from 0 to 100 is evaluated by specific critics who specialize in certain areas of wine all over the world. Parker's not alone! Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Decanter, Stephen Tanzer, etc. all have a subscription based neewsletter/ratings guide to wine. Heck even your local wine shop jumps on this system like they were hired by the New York Times. "T-Dog gives this Yellow Tail Merlot 95 points because he wants you to buy it so he can justify his over purchasing for the week!"
As the scale goes...If you're in the 80+ point range you're safe. Over 90 points you're pretty darn good. Under 80 points, pack up the vineyard and rethink your career choice. Again it's not the golden standard. It is merely one person's opinion on a specific wine in their respective region of preference. Some critics only rate/review Italian wines, some only California wines. And with that you have to submit your wines for the tastings for the inevitable smackdown. It's like sadomasochism! "Here are the fruits of my hard labor of the season for you to only destroy my hopes and dreams!"
Remember, it's a person's opinion about a wine. You don't have to agree with it. I don't agree with most of them. I've drank some great wines that have never been reviewed, that refuse to play along. In my honest opinion, it's a game and the game is called making sales. Look through any wine publication and you can see by the ad space and size of the ads who gets the best ratings. I can remember a few years back when Wine Spectator magazine published their "Best Wine of the Year" list. They overlooked so many great wines that they themselves scored high on the scale only to give Yellow Tail Reserve Shiraz a spot on the chart. How can you score a wine 93 points and overlook it only to put a 90 point mass produced wine in the spotlight? Then you turn to pages 2, 26, 97 and see the huge color ads then everything comes full circle.
There are a lot of great writers out there. Find one you jive with. Eric Asimov writes a wine column for the NY Times that is great. I find Food & Wine magazine to have great articles about wines. Their reviews are from more obscure vineyards and wines. Also, I like to see what they are pairing each wine with in regards to food which helps with the whole visualization process of what the wines is going to be like. At the local level, get to know your wine guy or the people that work under the owner. Ask what they drank this past weekend and chances are that it's some lonely bottle out of the spotlight tucked away on a lower shelf. Those are the gems!
Wine ratings are a good guide to help you navigate through the maze towards making a decision. By no means are they or should they be the BIBLE of the wine world. Most wines/vineyards that I like either get horrible ratings or not rated at all. It's not because I have bad taste, but maybe it's just because that particular vineyard took a stand and said "I don't care what you say about my wine. I'm going to continue to make wines that people enjoy drinking!" At some point in my career, I just began to call BS when I read the reviews and took bottle after bottle home to try only to discover that the review was totally off. When you give a $10 bottle of wine 90 points and proclaim to the world that it's loaded with ripe berry fruit then that's what I should expect. When I go home to open the bottle and taste oak, licorice, earthiness, minerality then it's something different which leads to believe that the critic is gearing his review for a market to drive up sales. Whatever! It's my opinion, it's there opinion! My check is smaller than theirs so their opinion carries greater weight. We both still put our pants on the same way. Remember that!
It all comes back to try, try, try! Make your own notes and compare them with your friends, family. In my house, I've always allowed my son from an early age to smell the wine and tell me what he thinks. It's amazing to hear the unadulterated and young opinion of a child. "This smells like blueberries and rootbeer" was my son's first review of the Las Rocas Old Vine Garnache 5 years ago. Now he's getting a little more descriptive as his palate evolves each year as he tastes new foods. Maybe he has a future in this field??
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