October 19, 2008 - I'm reading a old issue of Wine Spectator, the front page article is about 100 point wines. I'm skeptical.
What about the mood and health of the taster. These are acknowledged factors in wine tasting
Responses:
it is probably possible by pure luck - working with the best ingredients.
a vintner in San Fransisco told me once that their batch of wines had improved by the jolt of a recent earthquake...
but rubbish in rubbish out...
the same guy told me that in blind tasting he got a red and a white mixed - lol
You're heading in the right direction. Wine tasting is all subjective. I'm always very wary of ratings, especially when it comes to wine and food. There are too many variables and what might be perfection to one person may be swill to another. However, having said that, the people who rate wine are generally well-versed in the practice and even if you're not a fan of a particular grape, you can use their ratings to help guide you. But "perfection", I don't know. I've been battling that word myself as of late, especially when people throw it around so much.
Whether it's the 5 star system used by Decanter or the 100 point system used by Wine Spectator, Parker, Wines and Spirits, etc, both the consumer and the retailers use the scoring system to decide which wines to buy and sell. There are merits to the different scoring systems. I like Decanter's system which gives a score out of 20 as well as a rating out of five stars. This way, there is no "perfect" wine that scores 100 points just like I did on my Stats 151 exam all those years ago.
However, it is frustrating when I'm using Decanter to try and decide which Bordeaux to buy. If there are 50 wines that all have the same score and all have four stars, it's not helping me to choose how to spend my limited budget.
The 100 point scale also has its pitfalls. How can one really accept that James Suckling's palate can without fail differentiate between a 98 point wine and a 96 point wine? Supposedly, the Wine Spectator tastings are conducted blind, but as you pointed out, there are intangible human factors in wine appreciation. Nevertheless, I find that Suckling's Bordeaux ratings do help me to choose what I buy. It helps to look at the Decanter, Suckling and Parker ratings together as well for consensus.
As for a perfect wine, I don't think I've yet tasted one of the 100 point wines, though I do have a bottle of 2001 Rieussec that I'm looking forward to trying in 20 years.
It's interesting to read about great wines in the past that would have scored 100 points. It seems unanimous in tastings of, say, 1945 Mouton or 1961 Latour, that different tasters tasting at different times in different company, with different food will consistently call it an unforgettable experience, a wine that is unique and second to none. On the other hand, I believe Parker rated the 1990 Montrose 100 points but since then a number of other tasters consider this wine inferior to the 1989 and possibly has Brett taint.
I do believe that there are some wines that simply have no flaws at all, and have achieved the perfect balance and harmony of alcohol, fruit, tannin and acidity. These are rare indeed, and reviewers need to be careful not to abuse their 100 point markers. Look for consistency amongst reviewers.
Cheers! Sorry for being verbose.
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