Maybe I'm weird, but...

[Thomas]

Machforce1, you have discovered what every wine consumer should: it is your palate that matters, not the palates of so-called gurus whose magazines survive on the strength of advertising--get it--and whose writers survive on the strength of their perks rather than their palates. Besides, why should anyone else's palate assume what you will like, especially when magazine writers seem universally to love fruit bombs that have had a substantial brush with wood.

I defy anyone to illuminate the difference between a wine that scores 88 and one that scores 90 on the magazine's arbitrary 100-point system. What I prefer is that consumers explore wine on their own, deciding what suits their palates and their budgets.