One of the most intriguing parts of reading a wine review, and possibly the most followed, is the little rating attached to the end. There are numerical scores out of 20 or 100; three stars, four stars, or five; symbols for value; bottles up, down or tilted somewhere in between; make a list of all the wine ratings and it’s a sight to be seen!

This month’s meeting will make some sense of it all as a five-part series in the Viniminutes. We’ll discuss the basics of judging, put it to practice with blind tasting and finally analyze scores to not only depict a winner but to leverage these scores as they may help you in determining whether or not the bottle you are about to buy is of great value for money.

PART I – Judging wine for sensory quality

PART II – Battle of the Pacific coast: California and Chile

PART III – You be the judge

PART IV – Introductory methods for scoring analysis

PART V – Turning a judgement call into a value call