Robert Parker ’ s Wine Advocate 100-point wine-scoring scale
and assign it a score that is almost always accompanied by a tasting note describing what the wine tasted like , either in a sterile or more poetic way ( I much prefer the poetic version , but I digress ). Assigning a score to something that is so romantic has always felt somewhat foreign to me ; I have moved more and more away from scores in my personal wine journey .
96 – 100 Extraordinary
90 - 95 Outstanding
80 - 89 Barely above average to very good
70 - 79 Average
60 - 69 Below average
50 - 59 Unacceptable
“ I think we have an innate desire to quantify things , so putting a score to something makes sense in our brain .”
I think we have an innate desire to quantify things , so putting a score to something makes sense in our brain . I know my initial attraction to wine scores , in my early learning phase , was a bit of a shorthand — the draw to me personally , was an interest in the “ stats .” There was a bit of nostalgia that reminds of the days when I would look at the sports stats in the Sunday paper of my favorite baseball teams batting averages or pitching stats ( yes , I used to read the Sunday paper , and I ’ m only 46 ).
I equally love and hate the quote “ it ’ s a matter of taste ,” though it is relevant in the context of how it relates to wine scores . Looking at it one way , saying “ it ’ s a matter of taste ” is like saying , I have taste and you don ’ t , if you don ’ t get it . But I like the literal version much better , in the sense of , it is a matter of taste , your personal taste , which I think is uniquely your own and nothing should impede your enjoyment of the things that capture you .
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