For a long time I’d eschewed putting a score or rating to the wines I’ve reviewed on here, hoping that the reader could make their own conclusions based on my review and words. For some of my other writings published elsewhere, I use an arbitrary rating out of 10. Yet people were still asking about the wines I’ve reviewed on my site for a score to reflect a summation of my thoughts.

There are a myriad of systems that one could employ. I’ve been using the well regarded 20 point scale (with quarter markers for “+”) similar to those favoured by Australian wine shows and many other wine writers, however since mid 2020 I’ve started including a roughly equivalent score on the 100 point scale to show the incremental difference. The below is still a guide to the scoring.

Gold: 19 to 20 – an exceptional wine.

Silver: 17.25 to 18.75  – an extremely good wine.

Bronze: 16 to 17 – a good wine.

14 – 15 = Just acceptable. No specific wine making faults, but there will be better wines around.

< 14 Don’t even bother.

Ultimately, it is still an objective opinion and the only true judge of wine is you.