The EWine Scale: A Simple and Pragmatic Way to Rate Wines
Think about the last glass of wine you had. How much did you enjoy it? How would you rate it? Would you buy a bottle? What about a case?
Now, think about how a “wine expert” would evaluate the same wine. What would this person say? Would he or she score it 89/100, 15/20, or maybe 2 out of 5 stars?
If you think about these numbers for a minute, do you feel confused about what they actually mean? If so, you’re not alone. Based on our experience, an expert wine rating does not necessarily translate into anything other than an informed opinion.
We’ve been perplexed for some time about the significance of numerical wine ratings. Does a score of 85/100 mean a wine’s good? Does it mean we’ll like it? Does it mean it will pair well with the Chicken Cordon Bleu dish we’re preparing for dinner? Or, should we serve it with something heartier, like grilled steak?
Likewise, what’s the difference between a wine with a score of 94/100 and a wine with a rating of 93/100? Does a 1-point make a significant difference? Could we even detect it? If it makes a discernable difference, in what way?
When we’ve selected or ordered wines based on these types of ratings (instead of the description on the bottle or prior knowledge of a given offering), more often than not, we haven’t enjoyed them. This has come much to our surprise and disappointment. Although this could be attributable to any number of factors, including the types of wines that tend to receive high scores and the types of wines we prefer, it has left us to question the validity (or trustworthiness) of wine ratings. To our understanding, they are supposed to represent the quality of a given offering.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve talked about wine ratings with many people, including those in the Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand wine industries. This includes winemakers, winery owners, and sales and marketing staff, including those at the cellar door.
Does a high score on a wine rating scale mean you’ll automatically like a wine?
Through these exchanges, we came to realize that, although a degree of objectivity exists, for example, wines vary in terms of clarity, colour, body, acidity, complexity, flavour profile, and so on, the score ultimately depends on the rater. More specifically, the rating appears based on the person’s impressions of a given wine, tasted on a given day, consumed in a given context, and evaluated under certain conditions.
Accordingly, a notable degree of subjectivity exists in wine ratings. In addition, most wines are evaluated without food, which can make a marked difference in terms of what you perceive in your glass. Many wines we’ve tasted have paired beautifully with food, but have left us feeling underwhelmed when we’ve sipped them on their own.
In reaction to all of the above, we’ve thought a lot about wine ratings, especially the meaning and practicality of numerical scores. This has served as the impetus for a new, simple, and pragmatic wine rating scale that focuses on how much you like a given offering. Although the approach is admittedly subjective, we believe it has merit in terms of helping people rate and differentiate among wines.
The Enjoyment of Wine Scale (EWine Scale)
Our proposed 5-point scale (see Figure 1 below) is anchored by 1 at the lowest extreme (least enjoyable) and 5 at the other (most enjoyable). It aims to assess how much you like a given wine and, in a related vein, to what extent you are willing to purchase/acquire it. In other words, how willing you are to put your money where your mouth is, so to speak This evaluation stands independent of how anyone else, including wine experts, rate a wine.
On this last point, we’ve learned that an increasing number of wineries don’t even submit their wines for awards because they want their wines to speak for themselves. This philosophy represents an interesting approach in our view, as many sales are made based on the awards a wine has won and/or the score a wine has received, usually showcased on a sticker posted on a wine bottle. We see this almost every time we enter a wine shop or liquor store.
For the purpose of the current discussion, we’ll assume you just ordered a glass of wine in a restaurant and the wine is drinkable (i.e., the offering is not corked or spoiled). On our 5-point scale, your rating options would be as follows:
- A one-point rating translates into you finishing the glass. If you wanted to order a second glass of wine, you would move on to something else (i.e., you would order a different wine).
- Two points means you enjoyed the wine enough that you would order a second glass of the same offering (assuming, of course, you wanted a second glass, you weren’t driving, and so on).
- Three points translates into you purchasing a bottle, most likely for consumption at a later date, although you might order a bottle to drink then and there.
- Four points means you would purchase two bottles of a given wine. One bottle would be to drink now (i.e., for immediate consumption) and the other would be to hold until a later date, possibly in the months or years to come.
- A five-point rating translates into you purchasing an entire case of wine. That is, you enjoyed the offering so much you would be willing to drink a dozen bottles (assuming, of course, you could afford a case and/or a case was available for purchase, which might be challenging in some instances).
Figure 1. The Enjoyment of Wine Scale (EWine Scale)
We could delve into a number of mitigating factors and circumstances, some of which we’ve noted above (e.g., the availability of a given wine, the price of the offering, your ability to store a dozen bottles, your desire to consume a wine within a given drinking-window, etc.). The main point, however, relates to how much you enjoy a particular wine.
Of course, you could give a wine a partial score, if that made sense based on the EWine Scale ratings. For example, a 4.5-point rating on our scale would translate into purchasing 6 bottles. By way of contrast, a rating of 1.5 would mean nothing because you probably wouldn’t order a half-glass.
Using the EWine Scale
Although we’ve tasted many wines over the years, including 300-plus offerings on our recent trip to Australia (click here to see winery profiles of some outstanding places we visited), only a few would earn 5 points on our EWine Scale. This includes some highly-rated wines based on expert reviews.
When we’ve tasted a wine we’ve really enjoyed, we’ve usually ended up purchasing a case, wherever feasible. In some instances, however, we wound up acquiring only a bottle or two, even though we gave the wine full marks on our EWine Scale (i.e., a 5-point rating). On that particular note, both Château Latour and Sassicaia come to mind. We certainly would have purchased a case of each, but with cost being a consideration, not to mention limitations on bringing wine back into Canada, we had to pass for now.
At the same time, we’ve tasted some highly-acclaimed wines, such as Penfolds Grange (click here to see our review of this extraordinarily complex offering), but would give it a low rating on our EWine Scale. Why? Because we didn’t enjoy it all that much, to be honest, despite it being very well-made, extremely complex, beautifully balanced, age-worthy, and, according to many people, iconic.
As you can tell, ratings on our EWine Scale are highly personal and subjective. With that said, we encourage you to try it for yourself, so you can decide whether it works for you. If you’ve enjoyed any of the wines we’ve featured and praised thus far, chances are you’ll like the wines we rate as 3/5 or higher on our EWine Scale. We intend to use our new rating scale with the wines we review and post on our website.
Ultimately, it’s about whether you like a wine or not.
Final Thoughts
When we’ve shared our EWine Scale with friends and colleagues in the wine industry, most have nodded in agreement and offered some version of the following: What really matters is whether you like a wine or not, nothing more, nothing less. Those are (wine) words to live by, at least in our book.
If you have an opinion about wine rating scales or would like share any constructive feedback on our EWine Scale, please let us know ([email protected]) so we can integrate it into a future post.