Do points really count?

In a wine store you will read shelf tags that say Parker gives this bottle 89 points, Spectator 85 points. What does that mean? Should you buy this bottle? Is there anyone you can ask? To each of those questions, the answer is “maybe,” possibly even “probably.”

In a retail store specializing in wine, the owner or general manager is very well informed about various point schemes and is almost always able to comment on their accuracy. In a super market or convenience store, there is almost never anyone well informed about the wines on offer or any ratings ascribed to them.

So what about the points? They are rankings or grades. They most often are assigned by Robert Parker, the world’s most famous evaluator of wines, or by THE WINE SPECTATOR, one of the world’s most widely distributed wine magazines. Occasionally they come from editors of THE WINE ENTHUSIAST, arguably the next most widely distributed wine magazine. There are other publications and organizations who rate wines by point scales ranging from only seven points to 20 points to 100 points; but the big three just mentioned dominate the commercial markets.