The Rating Game by Greg Altieri

I hark back to a cartoon I read over twenty years ago – First frame shows a customer tasting a certain wine in a wine shop…customer exclaims, “This is awful!” Second frame: store person says “The Wine Speculator rated it 90 points”. Customer says “I’ll take a case”.

Never has a picture spoken truer words and little did that cartoonist know how strongly prophetic that piece would be twenty years later. The specter of the wine rating still exists and more than ever wields far too much influence and further numbs the individual’s ability to exercise his/her own judgment. Taking it a step further, its 1984 (George Orwell) all over again; forget about the freedom to make decisions and the freedom to form impressions based on one’s individual development of sensory faculties.

The great aspect of this business, however, is that usually there are no right or wrong answers – just opinions. We’re playing a subjective game; we all should keep that perspective. The gray area (read: individual preference) should far surpass the black and white (the arbiter of taste), yet I keep hearing the horror stories.

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This is the first of an ongoing series of wine facts and trivia presented by our Director of Training and Education, Greg Altieri. Please contact us if you have a specific question or topic you would like to see covered here.

1. The topic of sensory evaluation

• The tongue acts as a guide to what and how we taste – we sense the element of dryness/sweetness on the tip, the element of acidity on the front edges, weight in the middle and further acidity (usually tannin in reds) in the very back.
• The structural components of wine are: sugar and alcohol for the soft aspect (mouth feel) and acid and tannin for the hard aspect of wine.
• Those four components comprise the structure of wine, the aromas and flavors comprise the character of wine AND when you combine the structure and character you achieve the STYLE of that particular wine.
• Appearance and nose (aromas) are also important aspects of tasting in order to distinguish wines and grapes concerning their indigenous/typical aroma and appearance profiles.