About ratings:

Several wine professionals publish tasting notes about the wines they taste. Besides this textual description of the wine, its taste, color and nose, they also rate the wine. This is a measure of how much they liked the wine. Of course, taste is a personal and subjective matter. However, you could use the general opinion of these professional tasters as an indication of the quality of the wine.

The rating scales

All ratings listed are on a 100-point scale. The higher the score, the higher the perceived quality of the wine. Although there are differences between the scales used by different reviewers, they more or less follow the following scale (after Robert Parker):

• 96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase, and consume. There are few wines that actually make it into this top category because there are not many great wines.
• 90-95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
• 80-89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws. Particularly wines in the 85-89 range offer great value.
• 70-79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is a soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
• 60-69: A below average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor, or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
• 50-59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.

The minimum score a wine can receive is 50. Now the rating alone does not tell the complete story. For a more profound description of the wine you should have a look at the full tasting notes as published by their reviewers on their web sites or in their books. And to be sure you like it, nothing beats tasting the actual wines before you buy them, if you have the chance!

Sources:

• Robert Parker: © The Wine Advocate, full reviews available on eRobertParker.com. Although the wine reviews are written by a team of people from Wine Advocate, most people refer to these rating as "Robert Parker points".
• Wine Spectator © Wine Spectator, full reviews available on WineSpectator.com.
• Bettane & Dessauve: © Bettane & Desseauve, www.bettanedesseauve.com.
• Stephen Tanzer: © Stephen Tanzer, International Wine Cellar.