Good Morning!

I keep reading all these stories about why wine scores are so controversial. I wanted to chat a little about this and just speak my mind. Everything in life gets judged or is scored in someway. I think wine is pretty much like art, you like what you like and I like what I like and since it is all about personal preferences people all get worked up about this subject.

Ok, so there is a real pattern to how professionals (judges and such) taste and score. I know they judge by body, weight, taste, aroma, where the grapes were grown and all the other components that are not just about the grapes, like barrel aged or tank aged, has the wine been laying around on it’s side for awhile maturing, etc…I have read so many articles and books on wine judging and a lot of the info contradicts each other.

The first time I read about how someone judged wines, it was the couple who writes for the Wall Street Journal…they say yum, ok or yuck…Hahaha…I love this idea and as I read more I heard about this 100 point scale that Robert Parker Jr used to judge wines in the Wine Spectator. anything under an 85 is not good and the closer your wines get to 100, the better the wine.

Well, winemakers and marketing folks want to get closer to 100 for both bragging rights and of course to sell more wine. Wine is a business and you can only stay in business when your making a profit or you don’t eat. I get this point more than you know.

We are all judged, graded or scored in life, a salesperson has quotas, a parent is judged by how their child performs and behaves, an athlete is judged by how fast or how many points they can score, in our neighborhood we have a bunch of over acheviers who always try to out due themselves with the greenest lawn and best landscape. We have a bunch of guys here with pick up trucks and the dude with the best rims, custom paint job and you really can tell who puts more effort into his big ass Ford 250.

I think there are many guidelines in judging wines, but at the end of the day, when I ask a professional wine judge what are they looking for and the answer is a high quality made wine, flawless execution, great structure, good body and then they have to “like” or “love” the wine. Many will also say, they want to taste something new or different while letting the grapes speak for themselves. Ok, so I think this whole subject is interesting and I do look for high scoring wines when I shop, but sometimes I buy a wine because, I like the label or the area the grapes came from or because someone said, this stuff is good.

I can only say what I like and I am kinda leaning toward the scale the Wall Street couple uses, yum, ok and yuck!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi