You and I are both invited to a birthday party this weekend, and we've decided to go in together on a great bottle of wine for our friend. We both pick out a Merlot, and we're trying to decide which one we should pick. So, hey, why not look at the reviews and ratings? They might be helpful. Now, your wine that you picked scored a 4.5 out of 5 on the rating scale in Wine Searcher, and it reads something like this. Gorgeous black forest cake, perfume, baked plums, et cetera. Well, it does sound really great, right? Well, the wine I picked also had the same 4.5 out of 5 rating from a big box store. And it reads something like this. Smooth, subtle, succulent black plum and toasty mocha.

Kristi Mayfield [00:00:46]:

Equally enticing. Now, from these reviews, they both sound like we're going to pick the perfect gift for our friend. They're both four and a half points out of five. They should be comparable in quality, wouldn't you agree? Doesn't that make sense? But what if I told you that one retails for around $5 and the other for more than $100? Could you tell from the ratings or reviews which one was which? Exactly. And neither can I. Ratings and reviews can be super confusing, super frustrating to understand. So let's just take them to task, try to understand them a little bit further, and most importantly, figure out how you can use them to your advantage. So stay tuned and let's get started.

Kristi Mayfield [00:01:36]:

Welcome to Everyday Sommelier, where we make learning about wine approachable, fun, and something you can actually enjoy. I'm your host, Kristi Mayfield. Think of me as your sommelier next door, here to help you cut through the complexity so you can enjoy every glass with confidence and learn wine your way.

Kristi Mayfield [00:02:00]:

When it comes to wine, I think I've only ever had one 100 point wine. And it was a gift. An awesome and amazing gift, to be exact. Now, this wine earned Wine Enthusiast 2023 Wine of the Year, and I am waiting for the absolute perfect moment to open it. But here's the kicker. My friend who gifted it had absolutely no clue that it was so highly rated and regarded. She simply wanted to find a bottle special enough to thank me for doing something for her. And she knows I'm a huge wine fan, especially champagne and sparkling wine.

Kristi Mayfield [00:02:39]:

But should I wait to enjoy this perfect bottle just because it earned 100 points or a perfect score? Or should I just pop the cork and indulge myself in the generosity of the gift itself and not really even worry about the wine's rating? Well, let's dive into the subject of wine ratings, and maybe by the end of this episode, I'll already have that cork popped and I'll be drinking that bottle. But have you ever picked a wine just because it did have a high rating, only to be disappointed? Did you assume that this higher score is going to equate to a better wine or one you're going to absolutely love? And also, what's really behind the ratings? How much influence do they have over you and what you drink? Well, today we're going to pull back the curtain on wine ratings, the flaws, the marketing tactics, and most importantly, how you can break free and choose wine with confidence. Wine ratings or not. So what exactly are wine ratings? I mean, wine ratings aren't just a list of someone's favorite wines or favorite regions or favorite styles, at least not when it comes to actually the formal critics and rating agencies. The scores are meant to be independent of anyone's personal preference, and they're supposed to be focused on factors like the wine's balance, its complexity, its structure, rather than individual's taste. Of course, that's not always the case. We've all seen that quote, unquote staff pick at your local wine shop. But we're going to get into that in a moment.

Kristi Mayfield [00:04:16]:

But wine ratings are designed to evaluate each bottle against a benchmark, which is an ideal representation of what the best wines of a specific varietal or a specific region should taste, smell and perform like. Now, this assessment isn't based, again, on personal preferences or even a single winery style, but on decades upon decades of winemaking traditions. Critics consider factors like the color of the wine, its appearance, its aroma, its bouquet, its flavor, its finish. And overall, they bundle all of those elements into the consideration of that wine's overall quality as well as its aging potential. Now, who are these wine critics and wine raiders? We've seen historically, individuals like Robert Parker with the Wine Advocate, who is really considered kind of the father or godfather of modern wine ratings and the creator of the 100 point system. There's others like Jancis Robinson, who's a British wine critic and author. She's considered one of the world's leading wine experts, and her system is actually based on a 20 point system. And I love number 19 humdingers.

Kristi Mayfield [00:05:33]:

Others such as Antonio Galani with Venus, James Suckling, who in my opinion, is kind of the 90 point wine guy. His rating system doesn't really Recommend Anything under 88 points. Then you have Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator and Decay Cantor and other publications that have huge teams that taste thousands and thousands of wine every year. And a lot of them are very regionally specific to provide their ratings. But when you really break it down, let's look at the hundred point system. And what does an excellent wine or extraordinary wine look like? So what do these hundred point rating scales even look like? Well, Wine Advocate rates an extraordinary wine as something that receives 96 to 100 points, while wine Spectator is fairly close. They call it a classic wine, going back to that very typical wine for that style or region as 95 to 100. The interesting thing is, though, some of those rating scales, such as Wine Advocate, says anything below 60 is unacceptable.

Kristi Mayfield [00:06:36]:

Again, I'm going to point out that we have others who say anything below an 88 is absolutely unacceptable. So the scales aren't synonymous with one another. So you really have to understand what the scale is before you can even consider what that number means to you. But have you ever bought a wine that received 90 points or higher and been completely underwhelmed by that wine? What does it actually tell you about that wine's rating? So many people, and you might have fallen victim to this yourself. Assume that a 100 point wine is absolutely perfect, has absolutely no flaws. But is there truly a perfect wine when it comes to your own personal taste? And is that 100 point wine really going to sing for you? Now, I will say from a winemaker's perspective, to achieve 100 points on a wine you've created or multiple 100 point wines is super, super impressive. And I am absolutely not here to diminish that accomplishment whatsoever. But what I am here to help determine is what that 100 points will mean to you if you purchase that wine in a blind tasting, for example, could those high ratings actually be pushing you to buy that wine you're not actually going to end up enjoying? How much of your selection process is based upon what you see as far as numbers on a shelves or numbers in that in a one of the publications that I previously mentioned, and I get it, we all feel that total sense of overwhelm when we face that wall of wines.

Kristi Mayfield [00:08:24]:

And one of the ways we can sift through all of the choices that are available to us is to look at wine ratings. So do wine ratings come to the rescue or not? Or are we making some of these common mistakes around wine ratings? Or as a listener, are you making some of these common mistakes when it comes to wine ratings? Now, if you think that that high score is going to mean you're going to love the wine, you're definitely not alone. I mean, wine ratings are based upon one person, a single reviewer's palate. And what if they love a crisp, high acid white wine? And you in particular love rich, full bodied, big, bulky, big, buttery, oaky white wines. So what's going to happen when you take that 90, 95 plus score and buy a bottle because it sounded great based upon that rating? Pop the cork poured into your glass and it's completely not your style. And also when that wine achieves that score, it may immediately jump from a $20 bottle of wine to a $70 bottle of wine, simply based upon economics, supply and demand. So you have to also be buyer be aware that you may be paying more just because of that singular number, regardless of whether you're going to enjoy the wine any more or any less. And the number itself, does it mean it's truly a must buy? But when you start to dive in and understand who actually gets gave that score, a 92 from one critic might not actually be the same as a 92 point from another critic.

Kristi Mayfield [00:10:12]:

And so we have to teach ourselves to look beyond the number. In addition to that, when you are shopping for wines, have you ever noticed that shelf talker with a big bold number for that rating, it might say a 93 point. And that's exactly the Merlot you think you need to plop off of that shelf and take to the counter. But did you check to see that that 93 point rating is actually the wine that's still on the shelf? It might be a 93 point rating for a 2017 vintage. And the only Merlot that's left on the shelf is a more recent 2022 bottle. So the rating doesn't even apply to the wine that might be sitting in the store today. And in addition to that, if you look to the left, look to the right, look up, look down from that wine that got that 93 point rating. There are thousands of incredible wines, especially from smaller independent producers, that are never going to get rated by some of the big critics or publications.

Kristi Mayfield [00:11:19]:

And could your next favorite bottle be one that you've overlooked simply because it didn't have a rating? Now, it's fair to assume that most winemakers are going to focus on delivering wines of quality. But there have been instances where winemakers, especially when you're talking about larger regions that are getting a lot of acclaim, that might start to tweak their style, tweak their wines in order simply to impress critics and to chase these higher scores. So are you drinking a wine that's designed for ratings? Or are you drinking a wine that's really meant for your enjoyment? Now, I would love to think all critics truly are completely objective and that they are not at all influenced by marketing, prestige, money, et cetera. But there are regions that simply get lots of higher scores than others. Not because they aren't amazing regions, but because they get a lot of attention from the wine critics in that community. And I'd love to ask you this question. Do you believe that the wine industry could function without these ratings at all? Have we become too dependent upon them? And are we willing to still buy wines if it has no rating whatsoever? And if that's the case, what does that say about our willingness to trust our own palates? The wines that we may love, our favorite wines might not even achieve that 88 point score. And in some raiders instances, that might be a completely undrinkable swill of a wine, but yet it could be your favorite.

Kristi Mayfield [00:13:02]:

One of my favorite wine ratings, however, has absolutely nothing to do with all of the big critics and the big rating agencies and publications. Some of my favorite wines have been found by staff picks or staff ratings at local wine shops. And I would definitely not poo poo them at all. They're not formal ratings. They can be super fun and super helpful, especially if you're shopping at a store over and over again and you get to know the staff, you trust them, and they know you. They know the styles of wines that you like. So these ratings in this instance are ones that are actually based on a person's personal preferences versus those varietal or typicity benchmarks, just as we spoke about earlier. Now, if you can't see a wine's rating, how are you going to decide if it's worth buying? And would you still love that 95 point wine if you tasted it blind or didn't know that it had ever achieved that score? Similar to the wine bottle I received as a gift, does the score influence your perception? Or are you still able to think about it neutrally as something you would or wouldn't enjoy with or without that 90 rating? So let's flip the script.

Kristi Mayfield [00:14:25]:

And what if you only drank wines that were not rated? Would this diminish your overall experience? Would your wine journey suffer from doing so? If wine critics disappeared off the face of the planet tomorrow, how would this change the way you buy or enjoy wine? So let's think about a world where there are no ratings. Let's think about a world where there are no critics, and let's do this. I highly encourage you to not get fixated on ratings. But if you do, if you do find somebody that you trust and you see time and time again that the wines that they rate very highly are highly aligned with wines that you love, go for it. These critics may have the same palate as you. They may have preferences in their wine styles that align exactly with what you enjoy. Similar tastes, similar preferences, but definitely not just based upon a wine's brand name. So develop an affiliation with one or more of the rating systems and follow it, whether it is at your local wine shop and you're looking at Joe's favorite wine of the week, or whether you're looking at Robert Parker's ratings and you learn the system and understand how he and his team are rating wines and giving them the scores that they are achieving.

Kristi Mayfield [00:15:48]:

So review every single rating. Review every single wine. Review critically. And if you see too much flowery over the top layering of words that don't even make sense or just don't even describe might be a poetic sensibilities versus something you'd want in a wine like unctuous minerality with a hint of wet river stone and you don't understand what it means, then that might be an indication of a wine you just might not enjoy or you might love it. But the rating doesn't necessarily mean that it's the perfect wine for you. I mean, do descriptions like that actually help you or do you just roll your eyes and think, sounds like a lot of fancy, florally, you know, loquacious speak. Now, bottom line, remember that these points are opinions based upon styles, varietals, and what is traditionally a good quality wine for the type of wine that's in the bottle that's being rated. But don't let this overcome your trust in your own taste.

Kristi Mayfield [00:16:56]:

Learn to explore wines without fear. Skip the ratings, trying regions that you don't know. Keep a personal wine journey. We've talked about that several times. Or if you do want to rely on ratings, find the rating agency or critic that aligns with your favorite styles of wine. But never let go of your own tastes, your own preferences. And trust yourself. Also trust your budget.

Kristi Mayfield [00:17:27]:

Will you truly get 30% more pleasure out of buying a $50 cabernet sauvignon that has a 92 RA versus a $35 cabernet with a 90 point rating? Likely not. So save yourself that extra cash for better seats at your next concert and not necessarily on a higher rated wine. Consider buying those up and coming brands. Up and coming wine regions up and coming varietals and track to see in those publications if they're actually building up to higher and higher scores. A lot of times you can get a fabulous wine at a fabulous price because no one else has actually heard of it versus some of the more popular regions that are consistently getting high ratings, such as Bordeaux and Burgundy. And consider other factors like the production process, how well the wine represents the grape variety, how chip, how typical is it of the region or the style. Are you aligned with winemakers that are farming organically, sustainably or biodynamically? And it's amazing how understanding these principles can lead you to your next favorite wine. But the amazing news you can take away from all this information is that the world is full of thousands of fabulous, stunning wines that are likely to never be rated or reviewed.

Kristi Mayfield [00:19:02]:

And I know you've heard me talk time and again about steering you to these smaller producers, lesser known regions, lesser known varietals, and many other recommendations. But don't hesitate to pop the cork on any of these bottles. And statistically, even without the rating, you're going to discover a wine that's at least an 85% or higher. Because numbers don't drink the wine you do. And the best wines aren't necessarily the highest rated ones, they're the ones you actually enjoy. So instead of relying upon someone else's score, learn your preferences, experiment, trust your instincts, and the next time you go out to buy wine, completely ignore any of the ratings. Completely ignore any of the numbers that you see and pick a wine based upon your gut feeling. And most importantly, never let numbers dictate what you drink.

Kristi Mayfield [00:20:04]:

So if you have any stories around wine ratings or if you ever feel like you've been tricked by a wine rating, send a dm. Send an email because I would love to hear your story. Now, if you've enjoyed today's episode and it helped you think differently about wine or wine ratings, share it with a friend. And in order to join that community, pop on over to www.everydaysommelierpodcast.com and sign up for our newsletter list and join the community today. And in our next episode, we are going to explore wine varietals and the history of wine labeling as it relates to them with a special guest whose family has had a little influence on the rules and regulations that we see today on our wine labels. But until then, take a moment, throw the ratings out the window and pop the cork on your next favorite bottle of wine. Because cheers my friends, to learning wine your way.