Ratings reflect how highly our editors regard each wine relative to other wines in its category and are based on potential quality—how good we expect the wine will be at its peak. The numerical score summarizes a wine’s overall quality; the tasting note describes the wine’s style and character.
Wine Spectator tasters review wines on a 100-point scale. A finished wine, reviewed from bottle, is given a single score that indicates how good our tasters expect the wine will be at its peak. A wine that is not yet bottled when reviewed is marked as a Barrel Tasting (BT) and given a score range, a preliminary indicator of the wine's future potential. Following are definitions of our scores:
- 95-100 - Classic: Great wines
- 90-94 - Outstanding: Wines of superior character and style
- 85-89 - Very good: Wines with special qualities
- 80-84 - Good: Solid, well-made wines
- 75-79 - Mediocre: Drinkable wines that may have minor flaws
- 50-74 - Not recommended