The wine ratings generate both pro and con comments. The system allows the consumer to have a basic orientation on the quality of wines at a time when the sheer amount of choice can be overwhelming. One only has to take a look at online stores to see how Parker points, and in Spain, mainly Peñín points, usually accompany wine reviews.
However, this rating, even simplification, is not without controversy, with some cases of wines that, a priori, do not justify such high ratings, such as the wine from a Galician cooperative that, at a price of 1.49 euros, many consumers could well use for cooking.
There are two basic scales when it comes to rating wines: the American scale, most widely used by Robert Parker and Wine Spectator, and the British scale, with Jancis Robinson as the main prescriber who uses it. The British magazine Decanter, another reference in the world of ratings, also rates wines on the American scale.
The latter evaluates wines from 50 to 100 points: a wine between 96 and 100 points is assumed to be between 90 and 95 we would be dealing with an exceptional outstanding wine; between 80 and 89 it should be for above average; between 70 and 80, we would be looking at an above-average wine well made but not outstanding, whereas below 70 would be a came with defects. In the British one, whose origin is earlier and follows a technical valuation initially used in laboratories: 20 points would be a exceptional winebetween 19 and 18 we would be looking at outstanding productsbetween 17 and 16 before quality wineswith 15 as average threshold to descend from these points.
They probably don’t know that Parker’s big breakthrough as a The 1982 vintage in Bordeaux was the world’s most critical vintage. The then young, and to many unknown prescriber, scored against the tide as exceptional vintage and it was the Bordeaux winemakers themselves who promoted the critic, although some of them later regretted it.
At Finca Valpiedra we cannot consider ourselves badly treated by the critics in this regard: Luis GutierrezRobert Parker’s current taster for Spanish wines, rated our Finca Valpiedra 2008 Reserva (Rioja) and our Clavis Pico Garbanzo 2006 (La Mancha) with 90 points; DecanterThe Finca Valpiedra rating was raised to 93 points with the label ‘highly recommended’ and, in Spain, the ‘highly recommended’. Peñín Guide awarded more than 90 points to six of our wines93 and 90 to Finca Valpiedra and the Cantos de Valpiedra (Rioja); 92 to Clavis and 91 to Finca Antigua Moscatel (La Mancha); 90 to Finca Antigua Crianza and the Syrah varietal (La Mancha) and the same score for our Rueda white Montepedroso 2013.
In any case, in Familia Martínez Bujanda we believe that the points, although they can serve as a guide at a given moment, should not be the main reference to choose a bottle, but we must be ourselves who assess whether a wine, and its price, really meets our expectations.
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