FOOD NEWS
What Is The 100-Point Scale To Rate Wine?
BY RYAN CASHMAN
The 100-point scale, introduced by "Wine Advocate" critic Robert Parker during the late 1970s, has been the industry standard for evaluating wines for over 40 years.
Inspired by the American high school standardized testing system, the 100-point scale rates wine on a point system between 0-100, where each score corresponds to a letter grade.
Wines rated between 90-100 are classified as 'A', 80-89 as 'B', and 70-79 as 'C.' Critics consider wines rated below 'B' as substandard and advise against drinking them.
Points are allocated based on color (up to 15 points), aroma (25 points), structure (25 points), and overall quality (35 points). The total tally then represents a wine's rating.
Wines with scores of 95 or above are deemed classic or extraordinary, yet most wines assessed using this scale end up somewhere between 94 and
82 points.
Even though the 100-point scale has its critics, it is widely accepted as the most accessible and easy method to communicate wine quality to a broad audience.