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Health & Fitness

Why Wine Points Don't Matter

Explaining why wine points won't help you find the best bang for your buck.

Very often, I see people in my store buy a wine because someone gave the wine many (90 or more out of 100) points. 

Other times, I hear someone say, without seeing the points note, that they don’t like the wine. When you are buying a wine, it is important for you to know: do wine points matter? In order to answer this question, consider the following points.

1. Do you know the source of the points?

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There are hundreds of individuals giving wines points. Magazines, wine reviewers and other professionals give the wines points. Do you even know who the wine rater is? Have you heard of the organization with which the rater is affiliated? Do you know whether the person or entity rating the wine is impartial? 

If not, ignore the ratings and use a regular selecting process of picking the wine, such as asking wine store sales staff which one fits something that you like in a wine. For example, if you like “structure” or tannin and you are selecting a red wine, ask which one has the most tannin. Ignore the wine rating!

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2. Do you have the same taste as the person rating wine?

Many Americans are attached to Robert Parker’s ratings. After all, they know that Robert Parker is famous in the wine industry, so he must give good wines high ratings. Right? Wrong! “Good” is subjective. 

Similar to movie reviews, the person who is paid to say if he likes the wine may think it is fabulous, but you might find it boring. Robert Parker - or any other wine rater - might love a wine, while you do not. The most important thing for you to do - if you want to buy a wine with high ratings - is find a wine rater who likes the same wines as you. Otherwise, forget the ratings.

3. Are you willing to pay more for the points?

Once someone gives a wine many points and the word gets out, people who have not read this article will swarm to buy the wine. It is inevitable. In response, stores will raise the price. Unless you are among the first to know the wine’s rating, odds are you are paying for points if you are buy a wine with a lot of points. Is it worth it to you to pay for those points or are you more eager to find something that you discover for yourself for less money? If you’re feeling thrifty, overlook the points.

Many people buy wine with more points because it makes them feel safe about the purchase. The fact is that buying wine is much more rewarding if you can identify what you like, describe that to sales staff in a wine store and find what you like through a short process of trial and error. Or, better still, attend lots of wine tastings. In wine stores, they are free. They provide an inexpensive way to determine what you like and don’t like. Good luck!

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