Does your wines have to be scored / rated to sell them ?

Does your wines have to be scored / rated to sell them ?

Personally I saw a BB member get a low score after scoring big a few years in a row…so now what? IMHO they are #ucked … until you have your wines scored you can make this statement… " we only produce wines over 90 points" !!!..who could challenge you when your wines are dam close or on the mark…


So what say you…???..

i can’t remember the last time i looked @ a numerical score and thought to myself “let’s buy this” - i could care less about what # somebody gives a wine.

I very rarely look at scores for wines or regions that I am familar with. When faced with varietals/regions I am unfamiliar with, I will read notes and look at scores. Something has to be better than nothing - however after having been burned far too often by scores alone, I always start with the note.

I don’t look at scores, I’ve even been lax at reading TWA. I buy what i like and what friends recommend.

Having said that, we are what 1% of the market? The other 99% cares if it is in the WS 100 or if RP gives it 99pts.

New brands: It’s important, although not necessary, to get some critical praise. This opens the door for a new, unknown brand and gets them into retail, restaurants and distributorships who would otherwise assume the brand is just another wannabe startup.

Established brands: Dealing with wine critics can be a pain in the ass. Their schedules revolve around them and frequently have no relation to wine release dates. Some critics require a certain amount of personal pandering (dinner at your home, barrel sampling, groveling) before you make the big scores. Some critics are downright rude to everyone, even high-scoring wineries. Once a brand is established, one can choose to continue submitting to and dealing with critics, or not.

High scores: are great! They fill up your mailing lists and create instant price leverage. However, some wineries make the mistake of hiking their prices after just one high-scoring sweep. Critics and their followers are very fickle, and with a poor maintenance-to-loyalty ratio–the retailers, consumers and distributors who only call because you’re in the 90+ list will drop you like a hot rock if you get an 89 the next year. Best to wait and see if you make the critic’s “Christmas card list” as it’s called around here. It’s also wise for a brand to establish some continuity in scoring and learn where your wines fit with a critic’s palate–it’s far better to get 86-92 scores every time than have wines that range from 95 to 72!

John, I had already purchased thousands of bottles of wine before I ever reviewed a Parker or W.S. score. I used to travel to France every year and Napa at least 2-3 times to taste them myself. I was a much better barameter of what I liked and disliked than anyone else.
After 9/11 and then the birth of my son other’s reviews became important and useful since I could no longer make the trips. I have sadly recognized that the puppeteer’s palate and mine are not always in sinc. While I do find many of his Bordeaux and Napa Cab ratings useful to a degree, some other wines he has given high ratings to have received a rude Otto dumping down the drain.
If one has access to the vineyards to be sure that the wines calibrate on their own palate rating system, it is far superior. I stoppd my WA and WS subscriptions so they will no longer influence me except when I pick up an old issue while in the can.
[1928_middle_finger.gif]

Do they have to be rated? No. In fact, this can be an interesting road to travel down. Never submitting wines for review has worked really well for some people. The difficulty is the lack of publicity associated with that - you better have a good pair of shoes to pound the pavement in. Or rated above a certain number? Depends

I would say it depends on in which end of the business you are trying to position yourself.

If you want to run with the big boys and out-Harlan Harlan or out-SQN SQN, you better damn well have the critics back you up…and do it consistently. And you better pack a lunch, because Bill H has been at it a lot longer than you.

Otherwise, I can name plenty of brands who score in the 85 - 89 range and occasionally higher, but who sell a TON of wine. They might not get swooned over on ebob or Berzerkerz, and may even get ridiculed, but they have great businesses that employ lots of people and can afford to buy some really nice silk handkerchiefs to cry about it.

Agreed Jeff, i think most people are concerned about scores when they buy cause they have no clue what to buy and don’t have a community to fall back on for wine.

I used to look at scores when I was a “beginner” but now I read a little bit further and consider both the tasting note, and the critic himself.

There are a few of them who seem to be smoking some wacky tabacky lately.

Lately?

Things that have happened lately:

• i woke up this morning
• James Laube smoked something prior to going to work
• new years eve 99
• world war 2
• big bang

Lately is a relative term I guess.

Many of you say you don’t pay attention to scores, but how many of you pay attention to the wines that get mentioned regularly here and on eBob? You may not have seen any scores yourself, but the cult and board faves are usually purchased on ratings, which then trickle down to you indirectly.

I rely on the boards more than anything else now. The WA is mainly for me to know the competition I will have buying the wines I like. I am as likely to cringe as be happy when I see a high score for a wine I want to buy.

I guess I’ll be the first person to pony up and at least say scores sure helps in my purchasing decisions and are frequently important.

The original question seemed to imply that you ALWAYS had to have a rating to buy, and that is certainly not true for me. If I’ve tasted the wine, then I don’t really need a score to buy a few bottles. However, if I’m buying a large quantity - like, more than 2 cases for long term consumption - or, if I’ve not had the specific wine in question, the scores help for several reasons:

1. High scores let me buy with confidence that if my palate doesn’t match up on that particular wine, I can always sell it with ease and get my money back. In other words, high scores act as an insurance policy against me not liking it despite the high scores. Best example for me was the 01 Monbousquet. I liked it ok, but nothing I really wanted taking up room in my cellar. Easy wine to move along to someone who liked it better.

2. Low scores tell me to just buy a bottle or two and try it for myself if it’s a wine I’ve traditionally liked. And, I would never go really long on a low scoring wine because I’m committed to drinking it entirely over the life of the wine even if my palate changes or the wine falters over time (the opposite of #1).

So, as a consumer, scores do matter to me frequently. There, I said it and I don’t feel so dirty anymore!

Chris

OK Chris, I feel you and will admit to the same…to some extent.

Very few of the wines we offer have EVER been reviewed in any English language press. Our producer and wine of the Year for 2006, Alberto Vaona and his insane Pegrandi Riserva Amarone, have not even made the Italian press yet. That wine sold out instantaneously at $129 a bottle based on people’s trust in us and their experiences with the regular Pegrandi bottling.

We have taken the very slow grass roots approach … [big_boss.gif] …this is our 6 th year selling commercial…I must say it’s what’s in the bottle that counts…specifically after all the grass roots [d_sunny.gif] …

In a blind taste test my wines are to me and to my consumer far greater than most…maybe in all of my AVA…keeping it simple and small is very economical… it’s the bottom line that counts…so I go my own way …

thread drift WS came in found out that I blend NYS grapes from 2 AVA’a and was happy as a pig in crap…I got him to admit that he was tasting over 90 point wines…after his rounds not one word about us…payback for my Riesling Shoot-out where I humbled James Molesworth proving we are truly a 90 point AVA about every 3 years odd years this past 10…

Scores are only there to create demand, boost ego’s, push publication sales, and lure more sheep to the wine trough.

Unfortunately our society is so easily brainwashed that we can’t think for ourselves, and have to rely on someone else who we have never met to do it for us.

That’s America, baby. Get in line, or get over it and figure it out yourself.

Bone out.

True to the bone…you know it’s the ego’s that everyone told me about…they told me I would do fine…I wonder why… [gheyfight.gif] …it’s the hardest thing for someone to complain about your art…it’s another when someone offers you some good [big_boss.gif] and all is good you know you did right…