My use of of numerical ratings for Vinfolio reviews actually is a refinement of a system I began using early in my career to develop an efficient method for recognizing the top examples of wines I had tried. Instead of going through a printed list of hundreds of wines reading descriptions, all I needed to do was look at the right column for any number higher than 17. That was where I set the bar then to even have a wine in a display bin that may have been a great value for walk-in shoppers to pickup for a casual bottle. For my personal recommendations, I chose to raise that bar to only include wines I rated 18 (out of 20), or higher; equivelent to 90 out of 100 points.
When I joined Vinfolio I adapted my scoring to the 100 point scale, and what it showed me when I re-evaluated everything I had tasted under the 20 point system was that several 20 pointers now fell short of converting to a 100. I am very comfortable in dismissing wines that fall below 90 points which serves as my dividing line.
Late last year I blogged about my scoring rationale to illustrate that any wine I scored 90 or above represents a fairly small portion of what I taste, essentially the top tier, and the quantity of wine scoring 95 points or higher only represented about 4% of the total wines. Rarely will more than a single wine receive a 100 point score from me annually. The majority of the wines I recommend fall between 90 and 93 points. I notice those wines typically will receive less attention than the occasional 96 or higher pointer. To help you understand more fully what I mean when I give a wine a VF 90 instead of 96, there will be a link in my offers to the table shown below illustrating what the difference between a VF 90 and a VF95 really is. There are dozens of wines in the under 93 point category that are delicious. I will continue bringing more of my top recommendations to your attention.
VF rating Interpretation
< 90: Reviews not published
90 to 92: Very well made balanced wines I would be proud to serve at anytime
93 to 94: Showing special qualities that add substantial interest
95 to 96: Excellent examples showing concentration and complexity
97 to 100: The unequivocal best available, period.
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