How do YOU keep score?

[Randy Caparoso]

Thanks, Rick. I know I'm easy to haze. I also kinda get the picture in your ratings. Feel free to use them around me (snicker, snicker). Seriously, though -- what's your maximum number of checks and pluses, and to what exactly do they correllate?

And, was there some kind of mention in Wines & Spirits that I missed? I don't subscribe, and buy it only if I happen to be in a Barnes & Noble or Borders magazine section.

Actually, foodie, my method of rating is completely private. My eyes only. My torture MY readers with rhetoric. And personally, the only reason why I use pluses and minuses is because my four categories -- Excellent, Very Good, Good and Fair -- really are too simplistic. I noticed in a recent Tanzer/IWC, for instance, that Joel Butler uses a simple 3 star system. That's not good enough for me to remember what I really like (and besides, I'm not nearly as wordy as Butler). So I may rate both a Ken Wright Pinot Noir and a St. Innocent Pinot Noir "VG." But to remember that I like the Ken Wright a shade better, I give it a "VG+." Of course, this is, for me, a "universal" standard -- the same as if I were rating a Dujac, Williams Selyem, or Bannockburn. But nothing complicated; which is the idea. I like things simple... and saying it like it is.