top wine rating sites
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Wine Spectator's 2017 Tasting Events Sample hundreds of the world's best wines at our annual tasting events! Grand Tour tickets are on sale now for Las Vegas, Chicago and Miami. Plus, register early for the New York Wine Experience Oct. 19-21. What should I do with a collection of wine labels? A bright South African white with honeysuckle notes ($10) A ripe, juicy Italian white with creamy tannins ($20) This finely balanced Italian red has a spicy finish ($41) 2015 Bordeaux: 250+ Reviews Top Values / Easy Finds Newest 95- to 100-Point Wines Top 100 of 2016 (free-access) Latest: News, Views & More Frost, Hail Damage Vineyards in France and Italy Vintners from Champagne to Piedmont are fighting freezing temperatures Wine Spectator's 2017 Grand Tour Is Coming Tastings in three American cities will showcase 241 wines from around the world 13 Don't-Miss Chicago Restaurants for Wine Lovers Dive into the Windy City's exciting dining scene with these stellar wine lists
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See all 100, plus details on the Top 10 Job OpportunityWine Spectator is hiring an assistant tasting coordinator at its Napa, Calif., office. Find out which vintages to buy in key regions around the world.Updated:» Burgundy/Côtes de Beaune Reds 4/10/17» Burgundy/Côtes de Nuits Reds 4/10/17» California/Rhône-Style Reds 3/16/17See More Vintage Charts On Sale Now: May 31 issue Matching Food & Wine » Magazine Customer Service » Buy a Back Issue » Advertise With Us The most exciting wines of the year for quality, value and availability! See top 10 profiles, plus 25+ years of Top 100 lists! 2 Vineyards, 2 Cover Crops: Strategies for Different Vine Ages at Coutet 10 Standout Virginia Wines 14 Crisp Santa Barbara Chardonnays 8 Values from Northwest Italy Our exclusive lists of the world's top wine values, value producers and easy-to-find wines. Oregon Pinot Noir for $30 or Less46 affordable picks for the state's most popular red grape
27 Italian RedsSelections from Piedmont, Tuscany and beyond in good quantities ChileFrom Cabernet to Sauvignon Blanc, 30+ producers that make the most red and white values INSIDER New for April 26 40 wines up to 95 points, including California Chardonnay and Tuscan reds ADVANCE New for June 15 Sneak peeks of Best Values, Smart Buys, Collectibles and Highly Recommended • Personal Wine List: Track your purchases • My Library: Save your favorite articles and more • My School Courses: Follow your class progressThe 100-point wine rating system has become the benchmark of quality in the wine industry. If you have ever looked around for good value ’90-point’ wine, then you have used ratings. The system does rate some aspects of wine quite well, including production quality, but there are a few inconsistencies that you should know about in order to shop smart. See how wine ratings work, know their shortcomings, and then get a few pragmatic solutions that will improve how you buy wine.
Wine Ratings were first popularized in the 1980’s by one writer who went against the grain to rate wines for consumers. His name was Robert Parker. Today, Parker is the most recognized wine critic and his 100-point system is generally considered the standard scale by which the critics rate wine. Wine ratings don’t necessarily indicate how delicious a wine is. Instead, wines are scored based on production quality and typicity. Typicity is how much the traits of a particular wine ‘typify’ the style and region it’s from. How Wine Ratings Are Like Dog Shows The winning dog is the one that most typifies its breed. If a dog has unique markings or funny legs not typical for the breed, it won’t be rated as high. The 100-point scale actually starts at 50 points (and some raters never include wines below 80): It’s interesting to see that the average rating is a bell curve around 87-89 points. While experienced critics can easily agree on production quality of a wine, they start to disagree with each other when wines get into the 90+ range.
There are basically two schools of thought when it comes to grading wines in the 90+ category: If you’re going to buy based on ratings, you should look into the source. Some critics are known for typically giving lower ratings to wines than other critics do. It’s good to know this, because you might really like an 87-88 point wine that you wouldn’t have normally considered. If you love Napa Sauvignon Blanc and buy an equally rated Pouilly-Fumé –a Sauvignon Blanc from France– the rating doesn’t guarantee you’ll like it. This is because each region tastes remarkably different. The best way to consistently buy wine you like is to learn about what you like and why. Ratings can help you find quality wines from new regions but you’ll have to do your own leg work to read in between the lines to factor in personal style. Start learning about the wine regions you like and go beyond just scores. Develop your palate by Learning to Actively Taste Wine TIP: Learn to read in between the lines.
Find out what wine descriptions really mean. Some individual wine critics will taste up to 700 wines in just a few days and Wine Spectator rates a whopping 16,000 wines a year. While these numbers are astounding, they are a drop in the bucket of all the unique wines that come out each year, every year. If you’re trying to decide between 2 equal looking wines and one is rated and the other is not, that doesn’t necessarily mean the rated wine is better. When was the last time you saw a wine on the shelf that proudly stated “79-points!” While low ratings do exist, you’ll never see them. It’s not easy to freely look up this information because wine rating sites charge for access. The reason for this is because retailers are willing to pay for access to ratings in order to sell wine. One alternative tool is to look at crowd sourced rating sites like cellartracker. If you actually go to the trouble to look up all the major wine rating sites’ standards, you’ll see that the numbers above are not a standard.