What’s the point of points?

English wine guru Andrew Jefford hates points.

"To me, the whole scores thing has completely screwed up our brains … I don’t know how many points this (wine) has got and I don’t give a shit. It’s just gorgeous wine.

… The Wine Advocate, Vinous, Jancis Robinson … they are all offering 30,000 tasting notes ... all in their scored order. It stinks to me. … It’s all completely irrelevant to my experience as a wine drinker."

Now there’s a man who knows his own mind.

A few comments about points. Firstly, they are not absolute – they are just one person’s assessment of a wine at a moment in time.

Secondly, experts differ in their assessments of wines and the points the allocate. One of the most entertaining examples of this followed US expert Robert Parker Jr’s review of a Bordeaux red, the 2003 Chateau Pavie, which he described as “… a wine of sublime richness, minerality, delineation and nobleness”. 96/100 points.

UK expert Jancis Robinson saw the same wine somewhat differently “Completely unappetizing, overripe aromas … porty sweet … ridiculous wine”. Score 12/20.

I suspect Robinson was deliberately picking a fight with Parker whose extraordinary influence and tendency to allocate high scores to big, ripe wines was skewing red wine styles around the world. English wine authorities have always tended to favour elegance over power.

Image courtesy of Nuvo Magazine

Points imply that wine quality can be measured objectively but, quite obviously, there is a subjective element.

Jefford is going further though. He’s railing against the very idea that tasting a beautiful wine is an analytical exercise that can be reduced to numbers. And you can see where he is coming from. Fine wine can offer an exquisite experience, made all the richer by the surroundings in which it’s consumed and those present to share it.

Imagine a scenario wherein you have beaten a path to a small vineyard that has always produced a one of your favourite wines. Now you can see the place and breathe in the cool air. The winemaker invites you in to warm you and your partner by the fire. You sit for hours as he tells stories of the vision and the early trials and tribulations, and his steely resolve. Finally, the realisation of all that ambition and hard work is in the glass in your hand. You clink glasses and cement an experience deep in your brain that you will never forget.

Did any wine ever taste so good? Jefford’s final word on points:

"I just want to discover wine in a different way."