Flogging a Dead Horse - Version 11954.2

Any one who has met me, had dinner with me, bought wine from me, been to my shop, read this blog, or otherwise doesn't have their head firmly planted in their own ass has at one time or another been privy to the never ending discussion concerning points and how the relate(?) to wine. I have no desire to rehash this subject.

REPEAT : I have no desire to rehash this subject.

But it seems that there are many who simply can't get enough. Bouncing around the web today, I found a rather well written (albeit rather long) article delving once again into the abyss - referred to here as 'The Number'.

Wine Ratings Might Not Pass the Sobriety Test

I must admit that I am not familiar with Gary Rivlin or his writing but he does a pretty good job breaking it down - so to speak. If you've got a few minutes to kill, give it a read.

Here are a couple of the better points made:

A rating system that draws a distinction between a cabernet scoring 90 and one receiving an 89 implies a precision of the senses that even many wine critics agree that human beings do not possess. Ratings are quick judgments that a single individual renders early in the life of a bottle of wine that, once expressed numerically, magically transform the nebulous and subjective into the authoritative and objective.

Right on.

Mr. Tisherman, then editor of Wine Enthusiast, also realized that he risked irrelevancy if he did not follow suit. He watched the Spectator use what Mr. Shanken called 'the advance' - the scores his magazine sends out weeks ahead of the actual publication date so that retailers can stock up on highly rated wines to entrench itself as a central player in the wine industry.
"Basically the Spectator was saying, Use our numbers, which well send you ahead of time, so you can order a lot of that wine and then watch it fly out of the store", Mr. Tisherman said.

Keep this in mind next time some clown tries selling you a wine based on points.

Still, Michael De Loach, the vice president of the Hook and Ladder winery in Sonoma County, wonders if scoring mania is healthy for the industry. Wilfred is a bona fide wine guy, "but really, think about it, who needs Parker when you can make up your own numbers?" Mr. De Loach said. "If Parker or Spectator dont give you a high enough score, you can make up your own."

Read the fine print on those shelf-talkers. This is happening far more than you realize.

And lastly:

In recognition of this growing sophistication, Mr. De Loach says it is time to switch to a three- or four-star rating system because applying a 100-point scale to wine is dishonest. It makes the consumer think its scientific. He expressed his appreciation for the publications that have established their reputations by using it, but also declared it a noble experiment whose time is over.

I don't know Mr. De Loach or his wines (I have talked with a guy that does some work for him and he's cool) but this dude has got it goin' on, non-numerically speaking of course.