Ratings

All of these ratings are my personal opinions, and while I've had some of these wines multiple times, at other times I've had just a single tasting. You may disagree with these ratings, or you may find that the bottle you purchase doesn't meet your expectations. This is the nature of wine, which remains an art rather than a science. And of course everyone's taste is different.

I rate the wine on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest). I have reserved a rating of 0 to wines that are unpalatable when I am unable to resolve to my satisfaction that the problem is a corked bottle rather than an error at the winery. A few wine have no rating at all; these are wines that I was unable to judge.

Ratings provide a guideline, not a guarantee; each vintage and each bottle is different. The other day I poured a bottle wine down the sink; this was a wine I usually like, and in fact I still recommend that wine, but this particular bottle was bad. A bottle will go bad, either because of a mistake by the winery, improper handling in shipment, or neglect by the wine merchant. In at least one case, I've seen a wine ruined by its success: one year the wine was excellent and the next year the winery overproduced the wine to meet demand.

Finally, I'd like to paraphrase the Wall Street Journal's wine reviewers, Gaiter and Brecher, who said something very important. If you find a wine that's inexpensive that you enjoy, this doesn't mean you have poor taste — this means you've found a bargain. It's your and your friends' enjoyment of the wine that's important, not what I or anyone else thinks of the wine.