Do the Points Really Matter?

Do the Points Really Matter?

The short answer…provided in true legalistic fashion is…yes…and no.

The concept of experts and a point rating system makes sense and certainly makes it easy for the consumer. On balance I think it is a good thing. The proliferation of choices is overwhelming to almost anyone. And certainly point scores can help weed out what are truly bad wines. The quality of California fine wine overall is vastly better than it was 30 years ago, when the predominant theme was misnamed mass produced industrial wine. I believe point scores have helped in this evolution.

However, point scores also create false impressions of wine tasting being an exact science when we know it is anything but. This can be seen in widely varying scoring among the judges. One judge’s 88 is another judge’s 95. I just checked scores on a wine I am interested in purchasing and found scores ranging from 86 to 97. When I serve it should I announce to guests that I am serving a 97 point wine? I don’t think so. And on a retasting by the same judge the following year the score may change 5 or more points. Further, many reviewers utilize 100 point scales but do so in very different ways, with some applying scores from 50 and up and at least one not giving any scores below 90. Why, pray tell, would this be called a 100 point scale under such circumstances? Too often, this begins to walk and talk like a marketing ploy.

Tasting is subjective and everybody’s palates and preferences are different. Some reviews are made by a panel of judges and some are just a single judge. If it is a single judge, is that judge’s palate and style preferences like yours? Odds are, no. I was at a very nicely done tasting this weekend (9.13.08) led by Wayne Belding, a Master Sommelier from Boulder, Colorado. Wayne was demonstrating, quite vividly, the effects of terroir. He asked for favorite wines out of the seven served. There was nothing approaching consensus, with at least four of the seven each drawing about an equal number of votes. And one of the wines, a Grand Cru Chablis, was price and quality wise head and shoulders above the rest. Granted, the attendees were not tasting experts but they were people with a lot of wine experience.

Wine experts are tasting through dozens of wines at a time. The biggest and boldest will stand out in the sea of wines and get a high point score. But having a few sips and spitting out wine #17 in a list of 30 wines to be tasted and saying it is 94 points is vastly different than sitting down and enjoying a bottle with or without food. Under this circumstance, the biggest and boldest high point score wine may well be overpowering and less enjoyable than a more modest offering at considerably less expense.

And many small boutique wineries simply do not have the reserves and resources to send off dozens of bottles for evaluation. And some choose not to participate for the reasons discussed here. At this same wine event was an Oregon winery called R Stuart & Co with a great Pinot called Autograph at $50 a bottle. Very well done and easily a 90 plus point wine. Their website says they do not submit for reviews because they “don’t play that game”.

Further still, wine, especially pinot noir, is quite changeable. The bottle reviewed may have had bottle shock, be closed up and not ready to drink or just be a bad bottle.

So what should you do? We suggest the following:

Taste and form your own opinions. Taste some more. Your opinions will probably change over time. Learn to trust your own judgment and to identify your own style preferences.
Judge the judges. As you taste and experience more you may come to know their stylistic preferences and can take that into account.

Take the point score into account as only one measure of the quality of the wine and nothing more. People who chase very high point scores pay ALOT of money for certain wines (if they can even find them- usually these wines are gone by the time the scores get published) and they miss a world of opportunities that they may enjoy even more. Chasing the 98 point cult wine at $500 or more per bottle may have more to do with the collecting and investing impulse than the enjoyment of the wine itself. As Seinfeld would say, “not that there is anything WRONG with that” but appreciate it for what it is.

Recognize that many of the best wines are made by small producers who do not submit for scores.

As for us, on balance, and with some reservation, we will be submitting certain wines for scoring as we grow. It is an external validation of quality and we recognize that consumers do rely heavily on such validators notwithstanding our opinions about their limited utility. And we will promote our wines by point scores. As one friend said “you can go outside and shout at the rain but that won’t make it stop!”

Cheers,

Dave