Today I was asked a question worthy of a blog subject.
The question was: “I had a wine which was rated 84 points and I loved it! Does that mean that I have poor wine taste?” I thing any wine critic would agree with me that a wine should be enjoyed based on personal preference rather than solely on a rating. The wine phenomenon is rather new and new comers need some system to guide them. Wine critics do their best to be as unbiased as possible and keep a certain methodology or benchmark when rating wines.

I always tell my clients to think of wine as a perfume. Some appeal to you and others don’t. Some people buy perfume because they truly like the scent other because it is a famous brand or endorse by someone they admire or because it is just trendy. As with any other products, it is all too often about marketing and how people perceive it. The best marketing in the wine business is to get a high score from an accredited wine critic, like [1] Robert Parker Jr. Should the [2] Wine Advocate decided that your wine deserves 95 points, as a winemaker you might have just hit the lottery and you will use it this to promote your wines. However should you have received 80 points or less, one would probably not use that as a selling argument.
My clients are always in awe at one of the blind tastings I conduct. One bottle is always rated 89 points and above and is a well known wine. The other wine bottle is rated in the low eighties, which I personally selected because I believe that that particular wine is worth a lot more than the points it was given. You must understand that that wine might have gotten a low score because it was just not ready yet or it had characteristics that the wine critic was not pleased with. (This is a mistake many winemakers have made over the years and usually will not repeat. Do not release your wines to critics if it is not showing promising signs or you know that it would not appeal to a certain wine critic!) Now, because of that low score, wine stores may decided to liquidated their stocks and replace it with another wine, leaving a bitter taste with the store owner due to loss of profit. The owner will probably never carry the wine again. What is so interesting in these blind tastings is that 80% of the time the participants prefer the wine which scored lower. Now when I perform the same tasting, letting each participant know what they are drinking and how many points the wine was awarded, almost 100% will now prefer the higher rated wine. This is a perfectly normal reaction to have when being a wine novice. This brings me to a recent trip where I was visiting a winery’s gift shop in Oregon and I stumbled upon a plate with a cartoon on it, which was as follows: A man tastes a wine and finds it repulsive. He complains to the store owner about it. The store owner replies, well I don’t understand it got 93 points rating. The man, embarrassed by his remark went on ordering 3 cases of that wine and I went on buying the plate. It is moral of the story that this man doesn’t trust his taste and to makeup for it bought something he will probably not enjoy.

California Merlot growers know this all too well when America’s favorite wine was criticized in the movie [3] sideways and Merlot sales plummeted. Pinot Noir wines took over a huge chunk of Merlot’s market shares instantly. To this day sales of merlot have not recovered. How is it that one actor ([4] Paul Giamatti) in a movie telling another fellow actor that Merlot “sucks” leads the viewers to not buy Merlot anymore? Is it because the viewers tried something different and enjoyed it more or is it simply the power of Marketing? Or a bit of both? When becoming a wine drinker, it is like a spiritual journey, one need to find his or her personal preferences. This is extremely important in order to be able to fully enjoy wines! Do not be intimidated by what others might think. It’s your palate, not theirs and remember that your nose knows what’s best for you. My recommendation is for you to try a different wine style each time and make your marks accordingly. Remember, we live in the golden age of wine and it would be a shame if you miss out on the wondrous wines that are available to you.

Cheers!