Daniele Cernilli reposts an editorial from two years ago about whether or not wines should be evaluated with numerical scores.
At a very sensitive time, for wine and for the world, that of wine scores may seem perhaps a futile topic. It sparks endless discussions and divides opinion, though.
I try to repeat the reasons for our choice to still give scores to the wines we taste. As we do in school for kids, by the way, those who recently took their high school exams, which involved a final grade. Or even as is done in public competitions with rankings. And also as is done with report cards given to football players, or with movie ratings.
Then, what are “star” chefs or restaurants if not the effect of numerical evaluation? Stars instead of numbers, but the principle is the same.
Wines and scores
June 12, 2023 editorial
As is the case every year when the tastings are done to produce the Essential Guide to the Wines of Italy discussions also begin about whether scores should be given to various wines. I have always argued that if you give grades to students in school and make rankings in public competitions, I don’t understand why you shouldn’t give scores to wines. At the end of the day, it is still a matter of evaluations and in the cases I mentioned they are assigned to people for more, which is a much more difficult thing.
Then, it is true, giving numerical, and therefore quantitative, scores to measure quality is always a forcing, and it is also, and I would say especially so, when you do it with human beings as evidenced by the discussions that have been going on for many years in schools on these issues and in particular on the alternative between grades and judgments. So even if some people do not like it we will continue to evaluate wines with scores in hundredths as most of those in the world who have written about wine have done. Because it is an immediate and concise way to express an opinion, evidently.
Then we will not stop there, because voting is only one element. We will describe the wines evaluated, give news about the winery and the producers, in short, do more than simply assign scores. Who knows why, however, all that work goes by the wayside for those who criticize the wine grading system as if it were the main aspect of our work.
