After some discussion with a friend of mine, I feel that I need to have some sort of organized and consistent system of rating the wines that I taste along the way. The qualitative evaluation that I will be using is by no means an exact science or professional assessment of a wine or its future. This is my way, through the experiences that I've had and palate that continues to develop, to create a system for comparing and tracking wines along this journey of mine. I hope that you find my method useful and I am open to anyone's thoughts or suggestions to better represent the information that I am sharing.
0 Stars - No rating
1 Star (*)- Not of significant quality or interest
2 Stars (**)- A notable wine of legitimate interest
3 Stars (***)- Great wine that is worth searching out
4 Stars (****)- Fantastic wine that should not be missed
5 Stars (*****)- An absolutely mind-bending wine - beg, borrow, or steal to get your hands on some of this amazing juice!
Disclaimer: This rating is based on my palate and at the given time when tasted and may differ from yours. Also, I may catch a bottle in a dumb phase or it just may not speak to me at that particular time.
Please bear with me, I will gradually apply this new rating concept to older posts to establish a comprehensive level of consistency.
Thank you
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I like your approach to wine rating. Rating wines is such a subjective endeaver. For example, with Wine Spectator and the like, what's the difference between a 95 point rated wine that costs $27 (such as the '05 Columbia Crest Reserve Cab) or the $500 '05 Screaming Eagle that was also rated 95 points?
ReplyDeleteI also appreciate your disclaimer... so often, I've opened a bottle of wine and absolutely raved about it only to open another one, on a different day, after eating different foods, and the wine did nothing for me.
A few days ago, I opened a bottle of 2005 Zaca Mesa Syrah and served it with some grilled prime New York Steaks. I thought it was fabulous.... when that bottle ran out, we opened a bottle of 2007 Pillar Box Red... and, although I could clearly taste the difference between the wines (loved the Zaca Mesa).... others at the table actually preferred the Pillar Box to the Zaca Mesa!
Subjectivity is a fantastic thing!
Thanks for the comment, Jim. I wanted it to be clear that this is my personal opinion and not necessarily a statement on what everyone else's experience will be. But, I hope that through my comments and "rating", people can not only take some sort of value from my words but also learn to express their own thoughts on the subject along the way.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that subjectivity is a great thing. Without differing opinions, life (and wine for that matter) would be pretty boring. The conversation is one of the best parts!
It was great to meet you on Saturday and thanks for reading.