How I Score Wine
Most of you know my opinions about wine scores. I don't believe you can rank a subjective experience in a way that's useful for someone else. I'd rather just write a tasting note that describes the wine and lets you judge for yourself. I've posted some here to try and evolve that style.
However, I don't have much pull when I freelance, so when a client wants scores, well, I have to deliver. Fortunately, The Wine News lets me use categories that map to 5-point ranges of their numerical scores. How do I come up with these ranks?
I should note that I favor blind tasting, but I don't often taste blind for my features. I'm interested in the story and the people; the tasting notes are an adjunct. Besides, I'm usually tasting at the winery, so a blind tasting would be impractical. When I taste a bottle in isolation at home, I spit the way I would at the winery. If I'm tasting a wine that we'll drink with dinner, I try to taste before the food gets to the table.
I consider myself harsh in the upper categories and forgiving in the lowest ranks. Most wine just isn't that bad, so I've never given below a "Good" (80-85). But no wine I've tasted on assignment for The Wine News has ever moved me enough to get a "Superb" (95-100).
Of course, the bulk of my internal equation is how much I like the wine. But in addition to that, I try to explicitly evaluate other factors.
- Complexity - Are there lots of interesting aromas? Do they evolve in interesting ways? Or is the wine one-dimensional, easy to pin down before moving on? How intense are the flavors?
- Balance - Do the flavors and sensations fit together well, or does one bludgeon you? If it's the tannins that stand out, is there enough flavor to suggest that the wine might just need some age? Balance isn't something you can describe; when you find it, you know it. I moved a Lodi wine from "Outstanding" (90-94) to "Very Good" (85-89) because I thought its alcohol was out of whack. Balance and complexity are probably my two biggest criteria after my gut "like factor."
- Typicity - This is a tough one. What is a typical Chardonnay? One that's laden with butter and oak? Or one that's crisp and minerally? They're both legitimate styles. How well does the wine reflect the vineyards the grapes came from? Was it over-manipulated in the cellar? For the Lodi piece, I tried to fit the wines into the California profile that Lodi producers aim for: fruit forward, friendly, and fresh. If a wine isn't typical, is that good or bad? The wines from St. Amant Winery differ from the Lodi norm, but I liked them a lot.
- What kind of finish does the wine have? I think better of a wine with a longer finish, though this isn't an absolute.
After I make my notes I try to consider my own biases. Am I marking a wine down because of its overwhelming oak? Am I giving it a better score because I liked the wine maker? I try to check myself and adjust appropriately: I'm not likely to overlook too much oak, but I've given low scores to producers I like and high scores to some I don't.
You'll notice I don't mention specific smells and tastes in this evaluation. Smell and taste are so subjective that it doesn't make sense to me to use them for the ranking, assuming the wine is more or less typical. I put the aromas and flavors into the tasting note itself.
Probably everyone has a different way of judging one wine as "better" than another. My own thoughts on this evolve over time, so I'm eager to hear yours. How do you rank a wine, if you do?
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