Standard Wine Score System

  1. Why score wine?
  2. Which system to use?
  3. General remarks
  4. Flaws
  5. Shortcomings
  6. Standard Qualities
  7. Balance and finish
  8. Special characteristics
  9. Lecture

bullet1 Why score wine?

Wine: romantism and hedonism spring to mind when you mention the topic. What can be more pleasurable than a glass of good wine, a dish of fine food, and the right company?

Still, wine tasters want to score wines. They want to claim "this wine is not good", "this wine is a quality product" and "this is a truly supreme wine". Why do they do that? There are several reasons, among which:

  • Comparison: When you rate something, it is easier to compare to other products that resemble it. Even two completely different wines, let's say an Australian Riesling and a Californian Cabernet might both be technically well made, have a long finish and good balance, therefore be "quality wines".
     
  • Economy: It is easier to get the right wine for the right price if you can pin it down on a quality level. If wine 1 costs twice as much as wine B, yet they belong to the same quality level, you will definitely have more bottles of wine B in your cellar (even if you have a slight preference for the more expensive wine).
     
  • Quality: While you as an individual consumer do not have a real impact on wine makers, we together as a wine community definitely do. Exchanging marks help us to distinguish real good wines from merely correctly made ones. Some producers will want to leverage their wine to the "quality level". It is easier to do that when they know there are consumers interested in these quality products who are also willing to pay the price.
     
  • Discussion: it is easier to discuss difference when you know what is common among tasters when discussing a particular wine. When you first agree that a wine is sound and well-made, you can continue discussing its taste, acidity balance, and other properties. Should you try to discuss the wine without creating a baseline first, meanings will tend to polarize and scores become unstable or even senseless.

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bullet1 Which system to use?

  • Objectivity
    Wine tasting: in essence, a subjective activity. Some wine experts claim that there's more in the head of the taster than in the bottle.

    This is partially correct, though I believe that certain characteristics of a wine are fairly easy to objectivate. In blind tasting results, the deviation of points of a certain wine among tasters is smaller than the deviation of the points among wines. Some wines are indeed better than others.

    A good scoring system will help to objectivate scores. It is more difficult to pinpoint a wine without thorough analysis than with such analysis. It is also easier to compare wines and rank them, than it is to taste one wine and attach a score to it without reference to its peers.

    Any scoring system, therefore, must help tasters to analyse wine and to compare it with comparable wines (same region, same price, same vintage year,...). This scoring system forces you to analyse and makes comparisons easier. It helps you to state "I might not like this wine, but I can taste it is a quality product, made by a competent wine maker".


     
  • Standard scale or Parker scale?
    Robert Parker advocates the use of a 50-100 point scale because the classic 20-point scale (1-20) does not leave enough room for differences between wines and thus has a tendency to inflate the standard wine score. In my opinion, he is right. At least when tasters do not have a good rating scale at their disposal.

    This standard wine score system is meant to offer such a rating scale. A complex product such as wine is difficult to rate. There are several factors which come into play. Each of these factors has a slight positive influence on the score when it is present in a positive way, but tends to have a large negative impact when it is absent.

    For example, when a wine is balanced, its score can reach 12 to 20 points, but its quality balance will only take it to the 12 level. If the wine is unbalanced, it will rate 11 at most and possibly less.

    Balance is just one of these factors. Other factors include personality, typicality, length of the finish, and so on. The taster must take into account each and every one of these factors to pinpoint the wine: the wine score. Tasters agree that it is difficult to rate a wine as such. Most tasters therefore use an analytical approach and a sum scale. They divide the wine into several factors, then rate each factor separately and summarize the ratings.

    I believe that these analytical systems, while easy to use and widespread, are only partially accurate for the reason I mentioned in the paragraphs above. No matter how much personality a wine shows, and how long its finish, how layered and deep the taste, if it is not balanced, it's worth only a 12 or less.

    The standard wine score software allows you to switch between Standard Scale (1-20) and Parker Scale (50-100), though the latter is only an approximation. Nevertheless, when I compare my own scores (Standard Scale) with Parker's marks, they are fairly consistent with each other.


     
  • Quality levels
    Wine tasters generally agree that there are certain levels of quality. Wines within a level will be acknowledged as such by the majority of tasters. For example, when a wine is faulty, most tasters will agree upon that.

    The wine score system distinguishes between these quality levels:

    • Faulty wines (below 12): these show flaws or shortcomings.
    • Standard drinking wines: (12-13): correctly made, these wines lack personality, typicality or high technical quality to bring them to a higher level.
    • High quality wines (14-15): wines that achieve personality and typicality in both taste and smell are on the quality level, provided their technical quality is high.
    • Excellent wines (16 and above): quality wines which bring balance and finish to perfection are excellent wines. Special characteristics can further enhance the pleasure and richness. Very few of these will be on the 19 or even 20 level.

    The figure below shows the percentage of wines in each quality level.

    Notes:

    • "Standard drinking" and "High quality" have been combined into a "Quality wine" level. It is easy, however, to see that Standard drinking wines take 19% while high quality wines account for 15% in this quality level.
    • This figure shows an approximation of percentage for all wines found on the market. Tastings usually include more wines of quality and excellence level, with the exceptional faulty bottle.
    • The 1 and 20 extremes of the scale each account for about 1 bottle per thousand (not really 0 as suggested by the table).
    • Wine making techniques continue to leverage the technical quality of wines. As a result, flawed wines are decreasing in number. At present, most flaws seem to be accidents, affecting only one or a few bottles and not the whole production.

     

bullet1 General remarks

  • Higher marks, more subjectivity
    It is easy to agree upon faulty wines. Most tasters will immediately smell that a wine is corked, or mouldy. Rating a wine as "quality wine" is more difficult and requires experience, because aromas and tastes that may seem strange at first can well be a typical property of some region, terroir or grape variety.

    In the excellence level, marks may even differ more between tasters. It is not easy to taste a wine is "graceful" or "complex". The difference between 16 and 19 may well be in the head of the taster.

    This is not really a problem, as long as buyers keep in mind that Parker's 90 score for a certain wine may well be another expert's 80 and the reverse.


     
  • Technical quality outbalances typicality
    To get to the excellence level, a wine must either show typicality, either high technical quality. This may seem strange at first, one would think both are required to get a truly excellent wine.

    The reason is that wine makers often have to decide which approach to take: either they follow tradition, and choose a high typicality, either they choose a more modern approach and enhance the technical quality of the wine. Neither approach is better per se, both ways can achieve success but can equally fail to deliver quality products.

    A good example is Rioja, a spanish wine region. Traditional rioja wines get years of maturation in oak casks (even up to six years) while modern riojas get more subtle wood influence and therefore show more fruit. While the first wines may be more typical of rioja, the second will generally have higher technical qualities.


     
  • Color not an issue?
    You won't find any reference to how the wine looks like in this scoring system. This is not an error.

    Many tasters nowadays agree that however beautiful a wine's subtle color may be, this is unimportant compared with its bouquet and taste.

    Besides that, in these times of technical perfection, even standard drinking wines can be made to appear dark colored, brilliant, and thick. Even if there's still something beautiful left in the color of a great wine, its aroma and taste will reveal these qualities much more than the color does.


     

bullet1 Flaws

Flaws make a wine an unpleasant experience. These are bottles you don't empty. You throw away the contents, and even don't think about using the wine for marinade or in wine sauce.

Flaws are generally the extreme pendant of shortcomings.

  • Undrinkable
    Really undrinkable wines combine coarseness, vinegar taste, and a sick smell. The lower end (1) of the standard scale is reserved for them.
     
  • Coarse
    A coarse wine is a very inferior wine, due to bad wine making techniques. Coarse wines can smell and taste of filter pads, rotten eggs or other off-tastes.

    Coarse wines take the shortcoming "unpleasant off-taste" to its summit.


     
  • Acetic
    Acetic is the property we refer to when a wine has nearly turned into vinegar. This happens when the wine becomes too old, or when the cork start to leak. Acetic bacteria transmitted through the air will begin to do their work. At first, the wine will become "pricked" but soon, it will smell and taste of vinegar.
     
  • Sick
    Sick wines are completely unbalanced, usually combined with off-tastes that make even its aroma a disaster. Nobody in his right mind would drink a sick wine.
     

bullet1 Shortcomings

A shortcoming on its own does not render the wine totally undrinkable, though wine enthusiastics generally won't drink such a wine but use it in the kitchen for marinades or wine sauces.

  • Corked
    Corkiness, though not a pleasurable experience in wines, is considered only a shortcoming because
    • it is largely out of the producer's reach (unless he uses synthetic corks). Even the best wine makers buying the most expensive corks usually have a few bottles with cork smell per thousand.
    • light corkiness usually disappears a while after opening the bottle
    • corked wine can be used for cooking, unless in extreme cases we would refer to as "sick" wines.

     
  • Unbalanced
    Every wine has these characteristics: acidity, alcohol/body/sweetness, and tannins (even white wines do contain tannin!). If one of these three is absent or overtly present, we call the wine "unharmonic" or "unbalanced".

    The point where the correct balance is struck, depends on the wine type. It will be totally different for champagne than for Sauternes, because a typical champagne will be dry and fairly acid, while Sauternes usually contains a lot of rest sugar and much less acidity.


     
  • Unpleasant off-taste
    Some wines can be disappointing because of off-tastes like bad eggs, cooked or jammy fruit, filter-pads or other odours. It can ruin their aroma, therefore we consider this a shortcoming, preventing the wine from entering the "quality wine" level.
     
  • Oxidised / maderised
    Wines that become too old become oxidised. White wines tend to darken, until they are brown, while red wines usually pale. If this ripening process is extended, the wine will become acetic or even straight undrinkable.

    A related concept is "maderised", which often goes along with oxidative smell. While fine madera can be an excellent wine, madera taste in other wines is considered a bad sign.


     
  • Pricked
    "Pricked" refers to the first stage of a wine that will become acetic. If the vinegar taste begins to show up, sometimes even barely discernible, we consider this a shortcoming. The reasons are varying, but the most frequent causes of prickiness are:
    • Careless winemaking: when wine is exposed to air during certain stages of the wine making process, fruit flies will carry over the vinegar bacteria.
    • Too little sulphur used: to prevent vinegarisation, wine makers use sulphur. Too much sulphur results in off-tastes like bad eggs, while too little sulphur doesn't protect the wine effectively.
    • Leakage of the cork: even when the wine is bottled, the cork can be faulty and still transmit the vinegar bacteria.

     
  • Musty / mouldy
    Wine that smells of old socks, cellar, wet paper and the like is musty or mouldy. Here also, the reasons vary. Most frequent cause of mouldiness is unclean filter-pads used during the last stage of wine making (filtration and bottling). But also rotten wood in oak casks is a possible cause.
     

bullet1 Standard Qualities

Wines of standard quality show technical quality or typicality for their grape variety, terroir or region. Some add personality to that, showing the competence of the wine maker to produce really pleasing wines.

  • High technical quality
    If you can't smell or taste errors made by the wine maker and that the wine is made with the best wine making techniques possible, then you say the wine has a high technical quality.

    At present, if the wine doesn't show shortcomings (other than corkiness), you are relatively sure the wine is technically good.


     
  • High typicality
    If a wine is typical for its grape variety or wine region, then you say it has a high typicality. You may like or dislike the type of wine, but at least the wine maker has succeeded in bringing the grape or the terroir in your glass.
     
  • Shows personality
    Personality is what makes the wine stand out from its peers. The wine is not just "a typical, well-made variety X", but you can smell and taste the hand of the wine maker.
     

bullet1 Balance and finish

The best wines show their quality in two ways every wine taster is aware of: the balance between acidity, body and alcohol, and tannins on the one hand, and the length of the finish on the other hand.

  • Balance
    In any wine, the following components are present:
    • Body, alcohol, sweetness: the more alcohol or sweetness, the "heavier" and "rounder" the wine feels in your mouth. Dry wines with little alcohol will feel light, while alcohol-rich or sweet wines will feel more syrupy, gum-like.
    • Acidity: acidity is what makes a wine fresh, crisp and sharp. Wines lacking acidity taste dull and flat. Wines with too high acidity have a puckering effect on your mouth and linger in your throat after swallowing.
    • Tannins: tannins deliver structure and grip to a wine. Wines low in tannin have a lower impact on your mouth than wines with more tannins (all other factors being equal). Too much tannin makes a wine taste rough and unripe. If the tannins are ripe themselves, the wine will age well and become softer and more agreeable. Bad tannins, however, will stay and even become more pronounced. Even white wines contain tannins, though considerably less than red wines do.

    If any of these three dominates the other two, or is totally absent, we say the wine is unbalanced. The wine is dull or just too sour, too sweet or too bitter.

    It is not easy to determine the balance of a wine, because of several reasons:

    • When the wine is young, tannins are often hefty and not yet fully integrated. This can cause you to think the wine is unbalanced while in reality it is only too young.
    • Balance depends on the style of the wine. For example, beaujolais needs less tannins yet more acidity to be balanced than most other red wines do.
    • Interindividual differences are high: some tasters have a high tannin treshold, others are easily offended by a little too much acidity or a trace of sugar.

     
  • Finish
    The finish of the wine is the part that comes after you swallow it. The longer the taste stays in your mouth and throat, the better. This is in fact one of the reasons to buy more expensive wines: each mouthful of quality wine will equal a glass of standard drinking wine in length of experience.

    Lower quality wines meant to merely quench your thirst usually have a very short or even nonexistent finish. The better the wine gets, the more its taste returns via the nose ("retronasality") and the longer finish we say it has.

    Wine tasters must concentrate to fully acknowledge the finish of a wine. The aftertaste must be agreeable, not just a feeling of acidity or burning alcohol. A good aftertaste shows a fruity, animal, vegetal or mineral aroma in a lingering way.


     

bullet1 Special characteristics

At the high end of the quality scale, we find wines that are not only technically perfect with fine balance and long finish, and having lots of personality at their disposal, but also show special characteristics that are the hallmark of excellence, yet difficult to explain: a layered and deep taste, finesse and grace either force and power, a richness that overwhelmes the taster.

  • Overwhelming richness
    Wines that are rich and exuberant can be quite pleasurable. Their taste will overwhelm, as usually their aroma and bouquet does. Any standard wine tasted after such a rich wine will seem watery and meager.
     
  • Perfect complexity
    Complexity means that a lot is going on in a wine. Complex wines offer many aromas and tastes at the same time, finely intertwined into a perfect drinking experience.

    To call a wine complex, you should be able to identify at least five different olfactory components, even if you are unable to name them.


     
  • Noble quality
    Some wines are noble by themselves. They may or may not be complex, graceful or powerful, but noble wines stand out from the crowd by their pure taste and clean bouquet. You should reserve this description for the smallest minority of pure and clean wines.
     
  • Layered and deep
    Wines with modest to high complexity can have a kind of layered and deep bouquet, taste and mouthfeel. It feels as if someone pours layer after layer of fine taste on your tongue.

    Layered and deep wines are almost always fairly heavy and have a thick consistency, being either sweet either  alcoholic in nature. But due to their constellation and structure, the sweetness or body is well integrated and is not too prominent.


     
  • Graceful or forceful
    Depending on the type of wine, a truly supreme wine is either graceful either forceful. Years ago, wine tasters often referred to these properties as "feminine" and "masculine" wines. At present, such a distinction seems a bit awkward, but the fact remains that for example a top Gevrey-Chambertin is powerful while a top Chambolle-Musigny has grace and elegance.

    While "power" is fairly easy to detect, "grace" is the most fluffy concept mentioned in this score system. Every wine expert has his own definition, yet all will immediately recognize grace when they taste it.


     

bullet1 Lecture

  • "Parker's Wine Buyer's Guide" by Robert Parker
     
  • "Wine Tasting" by Michael Broadbent
     

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