Rating the raters

What better time to beat a dead horse than the start of a weekend?
We all have strong feelings about ratings and the raters, but even the most AFWE-ardent among us can find them intriguing/infuriating at times.
With that said, here’s my back of the napkin rankings of most legit/least trustworthy.
With the usual caveat to ignore points and trust your own palate, here’s my own completely subjective rating of the raters, from most reasonable to hackiest:
The big dogs:

1. IWC- They always seem so measured in their points and praise.
2. Wine Spectator- Less wild fluctuations than the guys below them
3. Advocate- A lot of reviewer variation, but I’ll listen to what they have to say.
4. Enthusiast- Of the big four, the least reliable. Most likely to toss out a 95 for a wine everyone else deems an 88.
   The rest:
   Eh, I never know what to make of the rest.
   Wine & Spirits seems pretty legit, but can produce some seriously outlying scores.
   Suckling is like WE on steroids, in terms of outlying praise.
   And then there’s all the also, also rans, that I dismiss out of hand even more quickly than the rest. Connoisseurs Guide, Tasting Panel, etc. Perhaps unjustly, I know nothing about them and don’t really care to.
   That’s mine. What’s yours?
   (And again, I know points and pro reviews are awful. I try to prevent them from swaying me at all junctures and to the degree I trust anyone else’s palate, I’ll take the CellarTracker consensus over the above any day).

I like John Gilman.

Forgot Burghound. That could get you in trouble around here.

somebody’s gonna get out a can of you-know-what

THIS WEEK
Tanzer/IWC-------Burghound
a bunch of others (Including Gillman, I also like)
WS







[middle-finger.gif]























WA

Jeb Dunnuck of The Rhone Report

+1. For the types of wine that suit my tastes, no one else is close.

+1

He and Gilman are the only professional critics I pay any attention to at all. Of course, I focus on notes far more than numbers (not a numbers guy) with both. I do pay some attention to Gilman’s scores, though, because our palates are very well aligned in some areas. I don’t have enough Burgundy experience to know how well or not I align with Meadows, but I think he describes wines well.

Gilman, Burghound, Dunnuck, Prince of Pinot. You guys are all right. Lots left of. Like I said, back of the envelope! I do appreciate Gilman’s evident passion for Beaujolais…

John is a tad more generous with his points than I am - but I suspect it is because he has a better understanding of where a wine will go. As a person with a young cellar, I don’t get to drink wines at peak as often as I would like and I suspect I underscore because of this . Bottom line, my scores are usually within 2 points of his - and I relate to his notes.

After Gilman, I am most likely to follow trusted forum palates.

Dunnuck always seems to be on the high end of the range, but at least he is consistant. WS is all over the board and I am learning to discount them. IWC is consistant, conservative and thus in my humble opinion most credible.

Really enjoyed Claude’s Fine Wine Review when I was a subscriber.
Allen M too.
Dropped all subs since we live under an oppressive monopoly and cannot just buy what/when I want, therefore useless in most cases, apart from personal interest.

I like CT.

The best raters to me are a few select personal drinking friends I get together with regularly!

Agree, but it is price point/wine dependent. People who have limited or lower price point experience will over score on average wines. Folks who over pay for allocated wines will do the same.

Jonathan Newman

Yes, when I was a buyer I liked Claude Kolm’s publication.

SOME have brains and necessary experience to write relevant notes

Then there are the crowds who give a wine 100 points to make up for 80 point scores with which they disagree (usually on mass produced plonk).
Throw in the 100 point scores for Georgia and North Carolina Wines…

Really, you like raters on CT?

I have to, I am one of them.

no mention of Jancis, Decanter, or WFW?


my favorite raters are certain folks on CT. Many of them also post here.

Well, I’m trying to “align” my palate with someone. I want to dress like them, smell like them, be like them and live like them. I haven’t decided who it’s going to be though. Until I get it I’ll just have to trust myself. Having tasted with a lot of those in the list above, I’m not going to bash them, but I don’t find that I should ignore my own impressions and act on theirs.