think we have established , or you will come to understand , that I am a huge wine nerd . Therefore , the arc of my wine experience may or may not look like most . I do , however , believe the early years of discovering my affinity for wine , is very like the average wine lover .
When I became intrigued by wine it led me to the easiest way to learn about wine , the wine magazine . Wine Spectator was the first publication that captured me . The oversized format , the brilliant photos of vineyards in foreign lands ( or right here in my back yard of Washington and Oregon ), exotic winemakers and sexy bottle shots ( yes , wine bottles can be sexy !). The articles were informative and interesting , but the back pages were saved for the most interesting and maybe the most controversial section ... the scores ! world has to offer . So , this brings up the question ...” Do wine scores matter ?” We ’ ll attack that question in a few parts together .
First , if you have dipped your toes into the wine world you inevitably have come across wine reviews that have some sort of score tied to them — whether it is stars , wine glasses , a basic one to five , or the current and most traditional 100-point scale . This scale was made famous by Robert Parker around 1984 and has been universally adopted . There are slight variations to the 100-point scoring system through multiple respected publications , but the breakdown below gives you the idea of how points are assigned to a wine and what each score means .
The process of arriving at the score is simple . A single reviewer or a panel of people taste the wine , evaluate its merits ,
My wine drinking friends would have arguments about what the best wines were and you either received validation with the agreeing scores from your favorite reviewer , or you had to come up with a countering argument . One had to provide a position that the reviewer was wrong , and you had the more important knowledge about said wine . It was a fun exercise in having your “ team ” of wines and pitting them against your rivals , aka your friends . But after years of following these “ scores ,” I fell further and further out of interest with them . I was having more and more personal experiences with wine , mainly pairing it with food .
There is a magic that happens when you pair the perfect food with the perfect wine . Early on that was the 100-point experience in my opinion . I have been lucky enough to have personal relationships with winemakers and vineyard managers , visiting locations across the globe , experiencing the culture and learning the history that wine brings to the world . This made the scores , in my opinion , seem less and less important and honestly , a little short-sighted to everything the wine
Wine vineyard on the banks of Lake Chelan in Eastern
Washington State .
November | December 2023 31