Why 100 or 20 point scoring systems are pointless.
The 100 point system
Many wine reviewers love this system, but it’s only it’s the 10 points between 87 and 97 that count. The official version goes like this:
95 – 100 Gold – wines of the highest quality
90 – 94 Silver – wines of great quality, style and character
86 – 89 Bronze – wines of above average quality.
Why would you drink anythings less than above average quality or 86 points – so why do you need the other 85?
The 20 point system
The wine shows still use the old 20 point system, but like the 100 point system tjis is excessive too.
18.5 and above – Gold
17 – 18.5 – Silver
15.5 – Bronze
Any wine that scores under 15.5 points – the lowest score for a bronze medal – isn’t worth considering. It’s those last 4.5 points that make all the difference:
The Kim Brebach KISS system
Looking at James Halliday’s Wine Companion scores, its rare to find a wine scored outside that 87 – 97 point range, so do we really need more than 10 points? Clearly not. So why the complicated systems? Is it wine writers making out they can score wines with surgical precision? Nonsense.
Here’s a much simpler system out of 10
10 – a truly memorable wine, a perfect example, a classic
9 – an outstanding wine, a great example of its style and origin
8 – a fine wine that delivers more than the label promises
7 – a good, thoroughly enjoyable wine punching above its price
6 – a solid wine you can rely on enjoying at any time
5 – a decent wine that is well made and offers some authentic flavour
4 – an easy-on-the-gums wine you might serve your non-wine drinking friends at a barbie
3 – a wine you should avoid unless there’s no other choice
2 – a wine so bad you should drink something else instead
1 – pure rotgut
For comparison
Price should have no influence on ratings as such. In other words, a 6 point score beats a 5 point score regardless of price. However, a $7 wine that scores 5 is clearly better value than a $20 wine that scores 6. By way of a broader comparison, our rating of 9 is roughly equivalent to other reviewers ratings of 95-96 (gold medal standard). Here’s the expanded comparison scale:
10 = 97 – 98
9 = 95 – 96
8 = 93 – 94
7 = 91 – 92
6 = 90 – 91
5 = 89 – 90
4 = 87 – 88
Where we need more granularity, I will add a + or a – . Simple, isn’t?