Rating

I just wanted to make a quick comment about rating wine. This is not going to be yet another discussion on the ills of the 100 point system, or any similar system for that matter. Because I don’t believe all the sophism spouted on this matter. A rating system is just a way of ranking things, whether it is 100 point system, a 20 point system, a 10 point system, a system that uses a number of stars or glasses or coupes, or a word based system (eg. outstanding/excellent/high recommended/etc.). All these systems are intended to reflect some ranking of relative quality, the only difference between the systems is the granularity with which the quality can be measured. The simplest system is a binary one: you love it or you hate it, you would buy it again or you would not buy it again, etc. The 100 point system has about 25 different measures. The 5 coupe system has 11 if we allow half coupes. The 20 point system allows 1 decimal point so offers up to 200 different measure, though only 80 or so would be used in practice. And there is also the famous 3DP (3 decimal point) system, now credited to Dave Brookes, which has a staggering number of measures – between 20000 and 25000. The 3DP is terrifying complex, and only for the most experienced tasters, and few to be honest have been able to harness its power. Even Mr Brookes sometimes struggles, and reverts to using no decimal points. So, for better or worse I will use the 100 points system with an interpretation of the number ranges borrowed largely from Allen Meadows:

There you have it. I like it because it is a bit tougher in its allocation of points, and there will hopefully be less clumping of scores at the upper end of the number range. Finally, though the point score is always something that catches the eye, it is the tasting note that is the most important thing to consider when deciding if you like a wine or not.