My new 100 point scale

99-100 a magnificent wine. I will search for it, and if available, and I can still pay the mortgage, I will buy it.
94-98 A really great wine. I will try and find it at market price
88-93 It’s pretty good, not one I would seek out, but if I see it below market, I might be tempted.
83-87. It’s ok, I would drink it if somebody else was paying.
80-82 a basic event type wine. You only drink it if there is nothing else available.
77-79. You would have to pay me to drink it.
01-76 You couldn’t pay me to drink it
Minus 173-00 Moutai

2 Likes

Hmm. I drink and buy a lot of wine in this range.

Personally, I would say:

87-89. It’s pretty good, I would seek out and buy if below market or otherwise reasonably priced.

90-93. An excellent wine, generally worth buying at market pricing.

Moutai isn’t so bad! neener

Depends upon which part of the fractionating column it came from, after benzene yet before gasoline.

1 Like

Pretty limiting range, but - if you are wealthy - GO FOR IT.

There are really three interrelated things going on here - absolute quality, price, and how likely I am to buy something. It reminds me of the graphs in entry-level economics.

actually, isn’t that an 8 point scale? :slight_smile:

Lately my scale seems to be:

It’s wine! Buy it!!! pileon

Yes, it is.
I went to China to do a wine judging. I had once tasted Moutai at a Manhattan restaurant and thought it the most disgusting thing I had ever tasted. That is not hyperbole.

So you can imagine my joy when I was told the first twenty “”wines” would be Moutai. Let me say I was close to throwing up after a couple, and managed to make my way through the remaining ones. The guest judges from Europe and America also had gray/white faces and one actually refused to continue and just marked his sheet with zeroes. I managed to find one that was halfway palatable; it came from a can and some of the tinny odors disguised the worst of the Moutai. I would give this to my worst enemies, the other nineteen not.

The following morning they had flown in the most venerable maker from pre Mao days. Armed with four teeth, a querulous voice and a beautiful ceremonial costume, he was there to tell us about the glorious history and greatness of Moutai. Unfortunately we did not get to hear much. The translator managed to round off each fifteen minute exposition into two sentences. At the end of two hours, I could swear some of the judges were close to sleep. I wanted it to go on forever, as I knew there would be more Moutai afterwards.

Alas it was time, but mercifully this time only fourteen. Things had not got any better. The fourteen were followed by several flights of Chinese grape wines. These are for the most part wines that struggled to get 80 points. That day they did a lot better. The secret for a bad or even a flawed wine to get a high score is to serve a flight of Moutais before it.

5 Likes

I still cling to the days when a 92-93 point wine was really very good, not “pretty good”.

Also, I just flat out don’t believe in linear single metric scores any more. I think most people tend to “score” wines across a range of dimensions and it’s confusing to reduce to one.

With that said, it’s useful to have an indicator of how much you loved a wine on the night. I feel like the 100 point score gives some false precision to that – I would prefer people just verbally describe how much they would value the wine along the lines of your verbal descriptions above.

I think this is a very good scale. Not totally dissimilar from my own and I’m sure many others.

Too many of us are conditioned by the Parker 100-point scale as well as the skew to the upper-bounds in point category. I would like to see a greater acceptance and quantity of wines scored in the range of 65 - 79. Unfortunately I don’t score my wines the way I propose below but it would give greater disparity from the point compression in the high-80s/low-90s we see on cellar tracker and elsewhere.

My proposed scale (using Napa Valley as the context for discussion):

64 and below: Mass produced plonk. The average bottle purchase price of wine in the US is in the $14 range. If we put the average bottle purchased and everything below into this category that still leaves 50% of wines (we’ll skip over mean versus median price for simplicity sake) to occupy the upper 1/3 of points to be scored from 65 - 100.

65-70 points: Mass produced but still drinkable wines and unfortunate private vineyard wines that are not up to snuff.

71-79 points: These would be entry level wines from lower-end but real producers from any wine region. Generically the mean price range is $20 - $25 although we know price does not necessarily translate to quality and vice versa. These are wines your friends who visited Napa once and know enough to be dangerous would buy. They can distinguish between Bronco Wine Co and wines made by actual winemakers and think you will enjoy their selections even though you are just humoring them.

80-87 points: Drinkable wines. Some craftsmanship went into these wines and whether you like them or not is subjective. These would be entry level wine from better producers in a given region. My guess is 75% of private vineyard wines will fall into these last 2 categories (71 - 87 points).

88-92 points: A fine wine. Worthy of home dinner with your significant other. Regular bottlings from top-tier producers as well as the great QPRs many of us often seek out and keep under our hat lest they lose their QPR status due to increased demand. Mean price range $50 - $80.

93-95 points: Fantastic wines worthy of the uneconomic decisions many of us make regarding our wine cellars. Reserve wines. Corkage worthy wines to bring to a restaurant. Wines you selectively pour, not to be stingy, but to pour with those who appreciate the quality and craftsmanship of top end wines.

96-99 points: Pretty much as good as it gets in winemaking. French 1st growth calibre wines and the rarified wines globally that swim in those waters.

100 points: Magical wines that turn your head and create moments you will never forget. Any one of us could hope to drink a handful of these in our lifetimes. It is only for those moments I would reserve a 100 point score.

champagne.gif

1 Like

do you use this system to try to classify wines after you buy them?

Wonderful story!

Reminds me of sitting next to some German reporters at lunch when Helmut Schmidt visited Vancouver years ago and a British Columbia wine was served. One of the reporters nudged his pal, then turned to me and asked, “Tell me, do they make wine in Alaska, too?”

I’m curious: Have you tried other baijus? A colleague brought a bottle of a top brand from Hong Kong ten years ago. The smell is, well, an acquired taste. But I slowly came to like the occasional sip of the stuff. Mainly, it’s fun to give friends a sniff and watch them recoil. Distilled sorghum is not for everyone.

I note that the laudatory Wikipedia entry on Moutai (a) does not say anything about what it’s made from and (b) measures output in tons.

This scale works for regions with which I’m ultra-familiar, but I’m still in the exploratory phase in many regions. I don’t think I’ve had an Israeli wine I’d rate over 90points, but I keep buying different ones to get a sense of the grapes.

I’ll even search out new producers in my favorite regions, just to see if they bring something unique to the table.

To my knowledge I have never tasted Baijus. You will forgive me if I decide I don’t think I am masochistic enough to try it.

Someone e mailed me asking me how I compared Moutai with the worst grape wine I have ever tasted. That would be a Marechal Foch from Pennsylvania which smelt like the inside of a latrine after an entire regiment had pooped having eaten a particularly pungent curry. I can only say Moutai was considerably worse.

1 Like

Great story. I always heard Moutai was the fruitcake of the alcohol world: the ones made are continually circulated and revered, but never drunk.

90+ is “excellent” in my book, although I do frequently refer to 90 and 91 as “low-level excellent.”

I can’t honestly say I’m purposely buying wines that I personally believe are less than excellent, except for some sub-$20 bottlings that I like to have on hand for various non-wine geeky situations/applications.

[rofl.gif]

I’d personally rather see a smaller scale rather than 100 points, or really 30 points since much like school grades anything in the 60s (or 70s really) is just unacceptable.

What if we “classified” wines rather than “rated them”

0 - I’d never willingly drink this
1 - If it’s being served and there’s nothing else I’d drink it but I wouldn’t get caught dead buying int
2 - Cellar defender - It’s drinkable, but I’d prefer to be drinking nice wine just don’t want to break the bank
3 - Good weeknight wine, I like it and don’t mind drinking/spending for this most nights
4 - Nice weeknight wine, I really like it and pop this when I want something nice
5 - Date night wine / weekend- I love this wine and enjoy drinking it one or two nights a week
6 - Special Occasion wine - I love it but only drink this for those special nights
7 - Once in a lifetime wine - Well maybe more than once but it’s just as good as it gets…

Here’s my rating scale:

100: The pinnacle of expression for a varietal, blend and region… as good as it gets. It must be exceptionally well balanced, harmonious and unusually complex. The palate must match the nose and visa versa. The finish lasts and lasts. This is a wine you’ll remember the rest of your life.
98 - 99: Almost reaching the fullest potential. A superb wine that’s also well balanced, complex and memorable.
95 - 97 A classic wine that satisfies in almost everywhere, however is missing some type of nuance that prevents it from being in the highest tier.
92 - 94: A wine that’s a joy to consume. It’s balanced, well structured and shows good value for the price. A wine in this point range usually has something unique and interesting to offer.
90 - 91: A very good to excellent wine that may be youthful and showing outstanding potential.
87 -89: Good Tuesday night wine that drinks well for the price and you feel confident in repeat purchases.

I honestly rarely drink anything below an 87 and would not waste my time writing a tasting note on a wine below 87.