Of glitter and broken hearts- the evolution of our rating system

Once upon a time, a girl journeyed to a far away land in search of the nectar of the gods...
No seriously, I went to Denver for a massive wine tasting and case lot sale held by The Vineyard. My sister and her husband are oenophiles and we were excited to make an afternoon of it. We each got a hold of the brochure ahead of time (over 100 wines!) and made note of the ones we wanted to try. The event was amazing and while my brother-in-law scored his wines using the popular 50-100 scale, I believe my sister used a more straightforward 0-50 scale. Of course, my rating system was much more scientific... it was either a smiley face or a frowning face. And if I really liked it, I put a star next to it. I mean really- you just can't be too exacting about these things.

Tasting our way up the Door Peninsula

Fast forward to Wine Club 25 and tasting our way up the Door County Wine Trail. As Andrea, Christine and I were scribbling notes on our wine lists, I shared my simple-but-effective rating system with them. Of course they got a good chuckle out of it and it was implemented immediately, at first as a joke but then in earnest. And it simply wouldn't do to have just three ratings... there was definitely room for improvement! There was one wine we were particularly disappointed with: von Stiehl's Apple Icing was described as a "perfectly balanced ice wine that pairs concentrated aromas of freshly picked apples with flavors of butterscotch, vanilla and honey." Sounds intriguing, don't you think? Well, that one scored an angry face, tears, and a broken heart; Simon Creek Vineyard got several half-smiles penciled in the margin; finally finding Red Oak Vineyard was well worth it (multiple smiley face-plus-star ratings) and Door Peninsula Winery... well, we couldn't run out of there fast enough. In fact, Christine ran so fast that we lost her in the parking lot.

And to be fair, our rating system wasn't heavily tipped to one side or the other. Andrea is definitely the artist of our group and while she actually found a way to draw evil glitter, when she was happy with a wine, you knew it. All you had to do was take a look at her page- there were dancing unicorns, hearts and stars. Everything a good wine deserves.

Ah yes... but that was three months ago and we've grown up since then. We currently use a 20-point rating system which assigns a certain number of points amongst eleven different categories: color, aroma, bouquet, body, tannins, acid, sugar, balance, finish, appeal and overall opinion. Total up all the points and the wine will earn one of seven ratings: poor, fair, average, good, very good, exceptional or superior. And yes... sometimes we are torn so you may see a half point every now and then!