A little food for thought for today.
My good friend Ben Simons (of deserved fame for his blog Vinotology) wrote an article for Palate Press that was published this week titled “Wine Writing in the Time of Technology” wherein he pretty much lays down a case for abolishing objective wine ratings altogether.
As a rogue wine reviewer (yes, that’s how I fancy myself) who uses an essentially 13-point scale system to rate the wines I review, I’m a bit torn on this topic. I find the Robert Parker “100-point system” (really 31 potential scores from 70-100) too precise, and “5 stars” or similar systems too vague.
What do my readers think (if any care to chime in, of course)? Do you like that at the end of my reviews there is a “Verdict” with a letter grade? Do you not care about those at all? What about my grouping the reviews by grade over in the right-hand column, does anyone use that to look at wines that received certain grades?
As the crowd here grows, I find myself more and more interested in why. So, even if you’ve never commented here before, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic.