Whilst it might be argued that personal taste has a large part to play in choosing a wine, there are many wine buyers who appreciate a few pointers in helping to choose a bottle that’s going to be enjoyable and good value for money. Whilst many wine reviewers use a simple one-to-five or one-to-ten grading system, by far the most influential wine rating system is that of the United States’ Robert Parker.
This well-known wine critic shook up the wine industry with the introduction, in the late 1970s, of his 100-point scoring system for wines. Wines rated highly by Parker have been known to escalate dramatically, to the point where many wine lovers have criticised the `Parkerisation’ of the US wine industry – with many winemakers developing bottles that correspond greatly with Parker’s own tastes, arguably in a bid to win points and boost profits. But although Parker has come in for fierce criticism from some quarters, there are plenty of consumers who swear by his highly-detailed rating system.
Parker’s ratings are published in his journal The Wine Advocate, and his system was devised with his friend and fellow wine enthusiast Victor Morgenroth. The pair created the ratings system in a bid to counter what they considered to be confusing rankings from their peers in the wine writing world. The ranking system has been much-imitated since, in magazines such as the Wine Spectator, but Parker’s remains the most widely-used and the most controversial.
Parker’s wine-ranking scale rates wines on a points system from 50 to 100 (why not one to 50? I do not know!). Under the Parker system, wines are graded according to colour and appearance, bouquet, flavour and overall quality/potential quality after aging. Whilst many critics argue that wine is too much about personal preference to be given such a clinical rating, that hasn’t stopped many US wine critics from adopting similar systems of their own.
The detailed scoring system is at odds with much British wine criticism, where reviewers tend to prefer a 10-point, or at a maximum, 20-point rating system. See, for example, the rating systems of influential British wine writers Clive Coates and Jancis Robinson. Although wine writers in the UK might make an impression on consumers, however, none have had the dramatic impact on sales that Parker has had on the US wine market.
It is considered common practice in the United States for retailers to print the Parker wine ratings next to the bottles on the shelves, and consumers are widely influenced by these scores. This is much to the chagrin of many opinionated wine lovers, who consider that these consumers are making their own purchase choices based on the personal tastes of one individual. Consumers, they argue, should be developing their own preferences and making their choices based on knowledge and taste rather than on somebody else’s opinion. But with wine-tasting such a complex process, much of the North American wine-buying market seems happy to trust the judgment of an expert wine taster and take the guess work out of choosing a bottle. If Parker rates it highly, many argue, then it is not going to be a bad bottle.
Whilst it is undoubtedly true that a top-ranking wine under the Parker system is not going to be undrinkable by anybody’s palate, a simple numbers system does not take into account personal taste. It is with this in mind that Parker accompanies his numerical rankings with detailed descriptions and tasting notes. Indeed, on his website he urges consumers to develop their own tastes and use the notes as guidance to help choose a wine that will appeal to their own preferences, instead of going by numbers alone.
Parker claims to grade wines according to the amount of pleasure he finds in drinking them, and says his scoring system was a necessary reaction to what he considered to be at best, confusing and at worst, corrupt ratings systems within the US market. Many writers had a financial interest in the wines they reviewed, he commented, and this was leading to a lack of unbiased information for consumers. But with Parker commenting that he can tell all he needs to know about a wine in five seconds, critics continue to believe that his ratings system holds too much sway over the US wine industry. Many consumers will buy only those wines rated by Parker as Outstanding (90-100 points), and this has led to difficulty in selling even those wines rated Very Good, and still more difficulty shifting bottles that Parker has rated Above Average (75-79 points). However, with bottles rating 100 able to as much as quadruple their prices, many wine enthusiasts find that the top rated wines are soon out of their price range.
Whilst it is arguable that many wine consumers benefit from a few pointers when it comes to choosing a bottle, there can really be no substitute for developing one’s own personal taste and preferences and learning to recognize the styles and types of wine that the consumer is likely to find personally enjoyable.
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What a great site!
I have been looking for something like this online for some time and will be checking in regularly!