To assist people in choosing wines that I have reviewed, I include a 5-star wine rating scale, started on July 6, 2014. This Ordinal Scale is the most appropriate I feel for grading wines, rather than the 100-point scale that other reviewers use. I have many problems with the 100-point scale, starting with the fact that the scale starts at 50, and there is no agreement upon all users to the characteristics of a 50-point wine.
My Rating Scale
- Poor or faulty – may not show any grape character, maybe very unbalanced, may have a wine fault such as being corked. Not a recommended wine by me.
- Acceptable – a wine that has some grape character, but no real structure, or interesting feature.
- Good – a straightforward wine to enjoy. It shows grape character and some structure, whether from tannins and/or acidity, but is not overly complex.
- Very good – A wine that shows good fruit flavour characteristics, is very balanced between fruit/acidity/tannins/sugar (differences between red/white/sparkling/fortified wines), has good structure and longer length, and possible aging potential.
- Outstanding – everything from a ‘very good’ wine, but also has some special characteristics, which could include minerality, superb balance and length, typicity of place, excellent aging potential, and/or other character that really makes this wine different and stand out from the rest of the wines.
For wines rated 4 stars and higher, I have introduced the “MyWinePal Recommended” graphic that I provided to wineries and wine agents to put on their websites, wine bottles, and shops where their wines are sold. When you see the “MyWinePal Recommended” graphic, you can be assured of the quality of the wine sold.
I do give half points as well for the wines. If you would like to find out more about wine rating scales, you can read my past post on this topic.
A few more of my wine rating posts:
