Ratings

The most important thing to know about my ratings is that they are completely subjective to my palate. I am biased towards earthy, funky reds and grassy, herbal whites. I am more forgiving of too-high acidity than too-high alcohol. I will score complexity higher than outright deliciousness.

Even with all that subjectivity, ratings are great for conveying opinions in a condensed manner. For now, I will rate on a simple scale, although I hope you will look to the specific tasting notes for better details:

Rating 5 – A wine that makes my palate stand up and applaud (I expect no more than 1% of wines tasted to receive this rating).

Rating 4 – An outstanding wine; one that I would seek out and drink on a regular basis.

Rating 3 – A good wine; one that I enjoyed and would happily drink again; but not one that I would actively seek.

Rating NR – These are 2s and 1s. I won’t generally provide details on these (my goal here is not to denigrate winemakers’ hard work), but you can contact me if you want additional information on these wines.