WSJ On WineScores

I don't recall that I've ever paid attention to the medals, precisely because I noted at an early stage in my wine-drinking life that the medals seemed to be somewhat arbitrary. The tip off was the many gold medals from "international" competitions claimed by small Midwestern wineries. Given, those tended to be the best Midwestern wineries, but I never felt they were competitive wines at that level.

The error in point values is precisely why I started using the 5-star system. In truth, when I'm tasting a wine, I'm still thinkling in terms of point ranges, but using "broad strokes," as Broadbent says, means my ratings should be consistent against all but very substantial bottle variation.

Still, I've always argued that the various critics having only a 3 - 5 point dispersion on a given wine is quite remarkable really - it means that, while there may be differences in preference and palate calibration, in general, for the typical bottle, they all agree on the difference between, e.g., high 80s and low 90s scores.

Um, Tom? Have you considered that there was one more variation you should be taking into account? You were in entirely different circumstances the two times you tasted this wine. Thus, the condition of the wine and your perception of it were both affected.

Wine in a tasting room and wine in a restaurant...or the same wine in a tasting as a restaurant, I guess I should say...are two entirely different wines. And you are in entirely different modes of perception.

Taste that same wine in an airplane and you'd have yet a third wine.

And imagine the variability of even a professional taster when assigning points and writing tasting notes.

Hi Hoke,

You are absolutely correct. Context is very important. I think the more favorable restaurant situation would have definitely enhanced my enjoyment of the wine. That said, I don't think I would have missed the oak in the restaurant, plus I had confirmation from the winery that the wine had recently changed. This is not say that the winery experience did not change my perception, I am sure it did. That along with the change in the wine itself did make this wine into something completely different than what I enjoyed in the restaurant. Such is life in the wine lane.