July 4 2007
It’s interesting to me, very interesting, that two of the biggest conversations in the wine blogosphere over the last two to three weeks have been about a unified wine ratings system for wine bloggers AND multiple posts and comments about the alleged canard that is wine competitions.
Seemingly conflicting points of view, these are. On the one hand we’re saying let’s bring some legitimacy to wine blogger reviews by using a system that brings a semblance of professional orientation. On the other hand, some are saying that already established and legitimate vehicles for rating wines (like medal competitions) are not suitable qualifiers for a wines quality.
“Houston, we have a problem.”
Something is very out of whack here. It’s like the boozy pretzel logic argument you used to get into in college, whilst playing a drinking game. How can we at once deride the establishment, but make an organizational call to order in our own house, without somebody calling this into question. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, “subjectivity is as subjectivity does.”
While I’m never shy on opinions, I usually tend to err on the side of progress under the veil of “live and let live.” In that vein of benevolence, I think wine competitions are legitimate forms of wine review AND I think that the time is right for a wine blogging wine review system.
The wine reviewing system, if a unified format can be agreed upon, represents the opportunity for significant progress. Mind you, I very rarely do reviews, but I haven’t ruled it out in the future, so while really don’t have a dog in this fight, I do feel some small sense of stewardship to be a voice that promotes progress in the wine blogosphere. And, really, what I’d like to make sure we promote is progress for the entire wine blogosphere. With vision and influence, can you imagine something occurring like Lenn’s Wine Blogging Wednesday, whereby there is a “Wine Review Thursday?” What if, every other Thursday, the wine blogosphere came together to taste the same three wines, provide reviews and tasting notes and then the organizer sent the aggregated end result to media outlets in a quasi-syndicated column.
That would be the wisdom of crowds come to life.
Tim from Winecast, along with Lenn from Lenndevours, have done a nice job of galvanizing support for a 5 star system, of which I have no dissenting voice. My only point is I would like to see widespread usage of the same organizational nomenclature, standards, descriptors, etc—creating something of a house-style review, even amongst differing palates. In my opinion, the more quantitative or measurable this review style can be, then it will be all the better for creating legitimacy.
While recently scouring my hard drive for something else, I ran across a paper that I received from George Vierra from Napa Valley College. He was featured in this Wine Business Monthly article in ’05 and I sent him a note for the full text of his research summary on building a better Wine Scorecard. The following excerpt acts as a summary:
During the spring of 2005 at Napa Valley College, students enrolled in “Sensory Evaluation of Wine” took on the task of answering these questions. The class contacted several university enology departments, wine merchants and experts and evaluated the methods of many reviewers for periodicals, newsletters and online services. As a final project, the class developed an improved scorecard, the Napa Valley College Wine Scorecard.
The Napa Valley scorecard, to me, seems interesting because it takes the best of the legacy (UC Davis 20 pt. scale) and improves it with more comprehensive sensory evaluation options. This comprehensive approach would also serve as a studied approach and buffer from less diligent reviewers willy-nilly passing out 5 stars to wines of dubious character. The point is they’d have to work out doing a review and as in most instances in life effort separates the wheat from the chaff.
If you’re interested in receiving your own copy of this excellent overview on wine rating systems email George Vierra at: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) For some additional, excellent background on the origins of ratings systems, and the breadth of available options, check out the following link from Delong wine:
In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye on this movement and hopefully Tim, Lenn and others can come to some sort of consensus this summer.
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