Agreed about amateur critics and the obsession with scores.
That said, I use the 100-point scale for my own notes as a way of forcing myself to think about how I would rank the wine among others.
Claude Kolm, in his Fine Wine Review, used a hybrid system: a 100-point “absolute” scale and a letter grade within the category, so a Muscadet might never rate a 98 or 100 but could still garner an A or A+. I think that makes a lot of sense.
Anybody ever tasted a wine and said “it doesn’t get any better than this”?
If you have, that’s the sensation of 100 points.
If you haven’t, maybe you’re trying too hard. 
I’ve given a couple of dozen 98’s. 5 or 6 99’s. One 100. The 100 point wine caused me to stop, sit and contemplate for several minutes while my mind expanded. All my senses combined into one entity. I felt like I briefly touched the universe. So I’m going to say it’s a rare and individual experience.
I like this idea too. I may actually mess with this a bit. Generally my ratings are intended to consider the wine type as well, but it is far from perfect and we all have our biases.
Same.
also very much appreciated!
Current realease can’t be 100pts? You forget that a critics job is to tell its subscribers which wine will achieve 100pts when mature. So it’s just logical that they right a current release 100pts., it is clearly stated that they also rate the potential of a wine. If they wouldn’t do that, they would be pretty useless to the consumer (what help is it that they rate a current release 93pts and tell me 25 years later that it is a 100pts now and I should have bought it based on their 93pts rating?).
BTW: I do rate my wines (and on CT) mostly based on what I have in the glass today and less on potential (as my scores are my library).
My mother used to say : perfection does not exist ( la perfection n’existe pas ) and then she always looked at me…
Even Sangria can be perfect…
I think this song is actually Lou singing about wine.
Perfection does exist. Let the joy shine in to your life.
I’m with you on this. I have had a handful of wines that made me think ’ I can’t imagine drinking anything better in this moment’, just blow your socks off experiences. Those experiences had nothing to do with a critics rating. I don’t score wines (I’m also terrible at keeping track of cellar inventory), but I can recall the wines that blew me away.
yes. My granddaughter is perfect.
I have thought about for this for two days now. Please tell me this is some kind of satirical post and I got got.
It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.
By definition, any argument about 100 point wines is satirical.
On, the other hand, maybe there is a non-satirical metaphysical component to our discussion.
Would Plato say that a 100 point wine could exist?
Have you seen this version?
Thanks,Ken!
I also like this as an example of a perfect day…
I don’t think I have ever rated anything a perfect 100. But for those who have, have you had that same wine a second time and still scored it 100? Was it solely the wine or was it that wine in that moment that made it a 100?
I would imagine so many factors go into a 100 point wine. Is it 100 point now? Will it still be 100 points a few years from now or longer? Was the wine decanted, and for how long? I would imagine a 100 point wine enjoyed straight from the bottle would taste different after a decanting.
Sometimes simply letting a wine sit in your glass for an hour can affect your enjoyment as it breathes and warms to room temp.
I am definitely curious if someone who’s had a 100p wine rated it 100p twice.
I will say again that I don’t score wines; but I have been fortunate to have had the 1985 Chateau Rayas twice in the last 5 years, and I would say they were both Perfect or 100 points. I had them two years apart from each other, in different settings with different people. Both wines were from the same private cellar and had been stored impeccably. If I could drink one wine forever at that point in its life it would be that wine.
I’ve had SQN 17th Nail in my Cranium 3 times; the first and third time I would rate it 97-98 points. The 2nd time I would rate it 100. I think the difference may have been decant times, as the 2nd time it was decanted approx 6 hours, the 1st and 3rd less than 2 hours. I have multiples of this bottle left and will age for as long as I can before opening and decanting for a long time.
Dans ses écrits, un sage Italien
Dit que le mieux est l’ennemi du bien.
–Voltaire, quoting an Italian proverb.
That’s true. I’ve had a wine while sitting in a cellar, freezing my ass off, and I had never had a wine quite like it in my life. I thought it was magnificent. That would be a 100 point wine I guess.
Same thing has happened to me a few other times. Once it was a botrytized Kadarka in Hungary. Not viable commercially and so it was a singular experience.
Another time it was the first time I ever tasted Haut Brion and that seemed to be one of the most perfect wines I could imagine. Another time it was an old Spottswoode that with one glass made me understand why people liked mature wine.
And another time many many years ago it was a Columbia Crest line that they no longer make, but it was the best wine I’d had up until that time in my life. It too opened my eyes, because I had never realized that there could be so much more to wine than the plonk I had been drinking.
Would that wine be 100 points for me today? No, because I’ve had thousands of wines since then. But it got me excited and curious enough to want to try more.
So I guess sometimes a 100 point wine could be a wine that redefines wine at some point in your life. Unfortunately, the more wines you’ve had, the harder it is to get those experiences and so a 100 point wine becomes a rarity.
But that’s OK too. A good wine is still a good wine. Doesn’t have to define perfection.