by Mike Bessendorf
Like a lot of people who write about wine, I
have chosen not to publish negative reviews although wines rating scales allows
for low marks. If you do a search here, you’ll not see any wines under 50,
although my tasting log has some 40’s recorded. This policy doesn’t seem like
such a bad idea watching what is happening with a wine blogger
Cam from Appellation
This whole episode has me reversing my policy
of not posting negative reviews. The next bad wine I taste will show up here
with the details of what I didn’t like. With so many good wines on the market,
it makes sense to warn readers of the wines to avoid.
The market lacks the
transparency in wine ratings and wine pricing. Wine producers and wine
merchants know a great deal about them. On the other hand, the public in
general has no way of knowing or determining the ratings and pricing on the
spot, while buying wine at the store or over the net.
As a result, the wine merchant
has an upper hand in these transactions and can induce the buyer into buying a
low ranking wine or grossly overpriced wine. Often, we see wine bottles
prominently for sale at a local store at say, $35 a bottle. A quick check may show
that its ‘street price’ is only $12. If the wine industry was regulated same
way as, say, debt or equity markets, you would see very different prices in
your local wine store. Well, the industry is not regulated and you and I are
taken to the cleaners every day.
I use a 100-Point Wine Rating
Scale. Ratings, directly or indirectly, are based on chance and
probability. There is a continuum of
wines from exceptionally good to good, so-so, to just awful and vinegar. A
scale that doesn’t incorporate these extremes simply doesn’t do justice to
wine. As a matter of fact, even the best and the most expensive wines degrade
with time and go to wine hell – the vinegars. Some wines take 100 years to get
there, some are born that way.
To ignore the universe of wine
ratings and to focus only on the upper part of the rating scheme is just plain
wrong.
96-100 - Extraordinary; a classic wine
91-95
-- Outstanding; superior wine
81-90 -- Very good to terrific; a
great wine
71-80 -- Good to very good; wine
with special qualities
61-70 – Slightly above average to
good; wine with various degrees of flavor
51-60 -- Average; little
distinction beyond being soundly made
41-50 --
Below average; probably drinkable. This is what French call 'vin
de merde'' -- politely put ... by a prominent French wine
connoisseur, François Mauss’ when they talk about wines destined for the
31-40 --
Poor; probably drinkable. May have a slight
vinegary edge & vinegary flavors.
21-30 --
Undrinkable, made of grapes, rotten apples or other fruits. Loved
by winos on a low budget
11-20 –
Horrible & awful; undrinkable, not recommended
1-10 – Vinegars, good and bad. Don’t drink!
While ratings may influence your decision, the
ultimate judgment is yours. It's important to remember that everyone has a
different palate and different preferences, so basing purchases on ratings may
not garner the perfect wine match for your tastes. And so, we all want to buy
the best wine for the lowest price, right? But how can you tell good wine from
bad? What’s the yardstick? The great wines have all the media attention, great
displays and great stories. And yet, there is a whole world of average, below
average and just awful wines.
How low can you go?
Well, quite low. We’ve seen
wines that only nominally can be called wines. We tasted Russian wines made
from apples. Very bad. Slightly above vinegar. But not by much!
And we tasted Algerian red
wine, which was even worse. Apparently,
Many East European countries
encourage production of the low-quality wines and vodkas to keep the folks home
happy.
In the 1970s and 1980s, before
In
The worldwide movement of wine
created a situation where you, the buyer, can find Austrian, Australian, South
African, Italian, French, California, German, Israeli, Hungarian, Romanian,
etc, wine at your local wine store!
But at the same time millions
of gallons of generic and unbranded wine travels to be mixed, processed and
bottled under some legitimate-looking labels.
And how
high can you go?
Well, this is where you should ignore the
marketing pros and use statistically generated ratings. The number of different
wines in circulation is astonishingly high. The conservative estimate is
100,000. On the other hand a number of online wine cellars claim that it
approaches 1 million!
Enjoy wine and save a buck!
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