OH THAT there could be an internationally accepted, universally agreed-upon 100-point system for scoring wine. If only the convenors of the competitions, shows, challenges and reports could concur as to where on the spectrum a wine is considered very good, exceptionally good, world class and super wonderful, as good as it gets… Instead what we have are various scales, frustrating insofar as the definitions of what the various ratings mean can range significantly – where 97 points from one tasting panel can equate to 95 or 93 from another, where gold in one forum translates as double gold or platinum in another, where 91 or 92 could mean silver, gold, double gold, even platinum, depending on who’s calling the shots.

The best wines on show, wines of the year, those at or near the top of the class, or simply put, the group(s) of wines that the panels of experts liked most, regardless of precisely what appears on the scoresheet… Whatever the number, colour, shape or form of the award, the top accolades are what wine lovers look for these days when they want guidance without confusion, or what wine connoisseurs and cognoscenti consider paramount when comparing favourites, making notes.

As if lost for words, some wine tasting convenors refrain from explaining what their ratings stand for, simply announcing their scores or awards without spelling out what they mean. For them, it’s sufficient to proclaim that they work to a 100-point system, implying that it’s the one and only, in some cases elaborating as to how each award is determined in terms of a range of scores, but that’s it – even if the range of scores for their top awards differs from others’!

It’s for this reason that when compiling the annual SA Wine Classification, some awards carry more weight than others – that and because some panels are more authoritative. For an update regarding the wine judges locally and around the world whose opinion counts towards the Classification, click here, and for examples of those that don’t, click here.