Australian Wine Review Scoring Policy

October 9, 2008

Scoring wines is such a contentious notion, with everyone having an opinion on it one way or another. Some people hate points, deciding that a single number hardly sums up a wine. But I still choose to score wines, as it serves as a personal reference point, something quantifiable about a certain wine, at a certain time, that helps give me something to hold on to.

So my advice is to read the notes first, treating the score as an addendum. I use the Australian Wine Show Scoring System, mainly as this is the format that I have been trained to use. Unlike Judges however , I have the luxury of tasting with the label in front of me, often over a several day period – giving the benefit of context and giving some young wines the time they deserve.

This scale appeared in its original form in ‘The World of Fine Wine’ Magazine (Issue 18, 2007), which was then modified by Steve Webber (De Bortoli) and hence by me (I’m actually the most generous of the lot).

Australian Wine Review Scoring System:

I also translate very roughly into the 100 point system:

19.1-20 = 96-100
18.1-19.0 = 93-95
17.1-18.0 = 90-92
16.1-17.0 = 87-89
15.1-16.0 = 84-86
14.1-15.0 = 80-83
13.1-14.0 = 73-79
12.1-13.0=67-72
11.1-11.8=59-66
10.0-11.0=50-58
Below 10=Failure

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  • About me – Andrew Graham


    At 18 I started working in a small suburban bottleshop, largely to buy cheap beer. It was my first year of university, doing a degree that I didn't really like, and a liquor shop seemed like fun. Needless to say I discovered wine, my uni degree morphed into something completely different and wine/beer took over my life.

    More than fifteen years later and I currently spend my days wearing many (wine) hats, mostly as a writer, presenter and marketer.

    While wearing my writer hat I contribute to the likes of The Retiree; Gourmet Traveller WINE, National Liquor News and the RAS plus I'm a Lifestyle FOOD channel wine expert.

    Crowned the 2009/10 WCA Wine Journalism 'Young Gun', in my spare time I'm a wine judge and recently graduated with a Masters in Wine Technology & Viticulture from Melbourne University.

    This site (Australian Wine Review or ozwinereview for short) is dedicated to talking about wine, beer and other good things. Largely focused on Australian wine, but with a healthy dose of tasty vino from NZ, France, Italy, Spain.. oh hell, if it's good, I'm in.

    Follow me also at twitter.com/ozwinereview or facebook.com/AustralianWineReview or Google+ or instagram.com/ozwinereview.

    Also check out my other project, Sydney's best wine tasting business The Tasting Glass.

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