RATING SYSTEMS

[wondersofwine]

I started by learning to use the University of California at Davis 20-pt. system and still use that sometimes when we are picking our favorite wine of the night at a group tasting. You can also translate the points roughly to a 100-pt. scale by multiplying by five. It goes something like this:
1-6 points for aroma/nose/bouquet (six being the highest possible)
1-6 points for flavor
1-2 points for color
1-2 points for clarity (if the wine is unfiltered, you may want to allow for some
slight cloudiness)
1-2 points for balance
1-2 points for finish (or overall impression)
To be useful you should have some idea what color is expected with that variety and age of wine (pale straw, medium gold, garnet, ruby, purple, tawny, etc.) and be able to detect off-odors such as too much Brett, TCA contamination ("corked"), stewed vegetables, rotten fruit, etc. However, even without a lot of training you can put down your general impression of the nose (attractive, flowery, fruity, hardly noticeable, repellant, etc.) and the flavor and get some comparison of which wines stand out for you in a tasting of several wines. A score of 18 on the Davis scale would be like a 90 on the 100-pt. scale (a wine you judge to be outstanding).

[This message has been edited by wondersofwine (edited 09-13-2005).]