Fine Wine and Spirits

Wine rating or scoring is both an art and science. Experts called in to rate have substantial responsibility. There is a lot of money in the industry and their scoring can either raise or lower the value of a particular brand; it is important that their rating is fair and accurate.

Most experts are aware of this and do a fair and unbiased job. But even when they do a good job, there will always be a difference of opinion and some criticism from people who do not agree with their scores. Experts test wines on a number of characteristics. Attributes like taste, smell, color, finish and overall drinkability are taken into account. Each of these qualities is scored.

The scores are summed and then rated. All aspects of the wines contribute to the score. It is not enough for a wine to be just tasty, smell great, or look colorful. It has to score well on all the attributes to get a good rating from the experts. Try rating the wines that you come across so that you can develop a scorecard for future reference. You can also recommend some wines to your friends and acquaintances based on your expertise from developing your own scorecard.

Just as the experts do, you can have parameters or qualities that you deem important. You can test each one and assign points. Total the score for each wine to arrive at its specific rating.

To rate fairly, you need to group wines in the same category while testing them. Grouping can be done in terms of price range, the region from which they come or the state where they are made and so on. Grouping them together would make your rating fairer and even.

You also need to remember that you should not be biased when testing particular wines. That is the reason most people do their tasting and reviewing totally "blind". They strip the labels off and have no information whatsoever while tasting it in order to be non-biased. To make the rating more objective, you can also do it as a group. The average score from the group can then indicate the rating for the wine, which would be fairer.

So remember that while expert raters have, sometimes, decades of experience and palette fine-tuning behind them, you too can impress your friends and wine aficionados with your rating skills. Just follow these simple tips outlined above.