Mar 232013
In the early days of Wine Reviews at Bacchus and Beery Wine Blog I wanted to be a bit rebellious so I eschewed the 100-Point wine rating system made famous by Robert Parker and adopted by just about every other mainstream wine reviewer around. To that end I, until this week, used a 5-Point rating system…very rebellious…very unique…note the sarcasm. Of course that was only after I found that using a set of 1-5 thumbs up graphics was far too complex for my understanding of blogging technology.
In fairness, the 100-Point system is easy for readers and consumers to understand. It has for many, become the standard and other rating scales take too much explanation. We also learned that our 5-Point system was sometimes problematic for wineries that chose to post Bacchus and Beery reviews on their site. While a B&B 4.0 was the equivalent to a WE, RP or WS 90 score, readers didn’t get it. A score of 4 just sounds bad. Since our stated mission is to support small, family and artisan wineries, it became apparent that our rating system was inadvertently at odds with our objectives. So away it went, unlike this winter weather (6 inches of snow so far today 3.23.2013).
Today, we fall in line with the big boys…as far as the rating scale goes, anyway. We still will follow “Momma’s Rule,” and say nothing about wines we don’t enjoy. Below rests an explanation of our version of the 100-Point scale. To date all ratings have been converted, unless I missed one… my god was that tedious.
Ratings Explained
84 & Below – Not Posted ‘cause we won’t drink it
85 + A good wine. Buy if the price is right
90 + A very good wine, in our humble opinion
95 + An awe inspiring wine – Possibly life altering
All wine reviews are based solely on the personal tastes of the authors.
Disclosure: Samples are designated by an “S” beside the wine reviewed.
We’re still objective. Robert Parker doesn’t buy his wines either
