Misleading Wine Ratings: A Supermarket Ruse
While I truly believe that we are breaking down the barriers that separate the wine enthusiasts from the wine snobs right and left, there is still a huge demographic of “experts” that are failing the wine renaissance horribly: Supermarket Liquor Department managers.
Supermarkets are a huge catalyst for the influx in retail wine sales, no argument can be made against that. Liquor departments at major chains are getting wise to the benefits of a well-stocked wine section and are including massive square-footage additions to their newer stores and even in some of their renovated ones.
Unfortunately, most major supermarkets have not taken the necessary steps to invest in their staff’s knowledge on wine and instead leave them to learn from one of the single most disreputable sources of wine knowledge on the face of this green earth: Their local sales reps.
Asking a supermarket employee for a good Cabernet will almost always lead you to the Cab of the vendor with the best sales pitch. For this reason, it’s always better to do your own research on wines offered at common liquor stores and supermarkets. This will give you valuable insight into the wines they carry with independent reviews and pairings available at a number of websites.
Many supermarkets are starting to offer visual aids to hurry along the selection process. These signs usual include point ratings and awards a certain wine has been given, but like bottle labels, you can’t always trust signage for an accurate assessment of a wine’s quality. Here are a few things to look out for:
Wine Ratings for Previous Years
I see them quite frequently at most supermarkets and common liquor stores I frequent. Usually a sign about a high point rating given to the wine from Wine Spectator or Wine Enthusiast. While most of the time these ratings are genuine, often half or more of the bottles bearing this signage are from a different year than the original rating. When you might believe you are buying a 2005 bottle of Cabernet Savignon that received a 92 point rating, you’re actually buying a bottle of 2006 with an 84 point rating.
Always check the year of the bottle against the year advertised as having received a high rating.
Wine Ratings from Irrelevant Sources
94 points, huh? When exactly did a Denver newspaper become such a reputable source for wine ratings?
Another common fallacy perpetrated by wine retailers is the “ratings” and “awards” you often see adorn the signage advertising wines. While I’m sure the wine writer from the Post thoroughly enjoys wine and has learned much about it in his years of food and drink writing, he’s not in a position to be offering trusted advice about wine that contradicts the opinions of the big three: Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast and Wine Advocate.
Each of these companies are niche publications catering specifically to wine and offer a similar scale for rating wines. If the high point rating was not awarded by one of these three publications then it’s not likely that the rating is completely accurate.
Wine Ratings from other Blends or Varietals
While some winemakers are indeed award winning, it is not always testament to the quality of their other wines. Robert Mondavi is a co-conspirator in one of my all time favorite wines, Opus One, but this does not automatically qualify his other “value” wines to receive the same quality recognition as Opus.
While Mondavi is not at all guilty of this kind of cross-marketing hyperbole, lots of less-known, smaller wineries are. Make sure that any advertisements displaying award winning wine mention the exact year and blend or varietal.
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