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I use this wine key: Laguiole en Aubrac Wine Key Ebony
I have used this glass in this Video: Gabriel StandArt
I have tasted the following wines in this Video:
2021 Fritz Haag Riesling QbA feinherb
2022 Ulisse Passerina Terre di Chieti
2021 Zind Humbrecht Pinot Gris Rangen de Thann Clos Saint Urbain Grand Cru
2020 Domaine Faiveley Gevrey Chambertin Les Cazetiers
The 100 Point Scoring System (from www.robertparker.com):
96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 – 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 – 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 – 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 – 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 – 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.
James Suckling has done it all. He started his career 40 years ago at Wine Spectator, established their European Bureau, and became one of their most influential tasters in the following decades. In 2010 he decided to go solo and launched Jamessuckling.com. At the core, the website is a database for his and his colleagues tasting notes. He also has a glass collection, a wine course, holds these big tasting events, has a wine bar in Hong Kong and he is certainly the most entrepreneurial wine critics …
Suckling often gets criticized for inflating scores as he seems to give out higher scores than robertparker.com and vinous for example.
On his website, he writes about his scores that: I rate using the 100-point scale. I’ve used this point system for nearly 40 years, and I still believe it’s the simplest way to rate wine.
A wine we rate 90 points or more is outstanding (A). It’s a wine we want to drink a glass of and is an outstanding purchase. If we rate a wine 95 points or more (A+), it is a must-buy. I you can afford it, I would add …
If we rate a wine less than 88 points, it might still be worth buying but proceed with caution. I certainly wouldn’t recommend spending your money on anything rated lower. There is quite a big difference in his approach as robertparker.com would still consider an 87-point wine “Good or Very good”. If you look closer at the ratings and compare them to Parker’s a clear pattern emerges. Robert Parkers starts scoring the bulk of the wines at 83 and Suckling starts at 86.
The majority of Parker’s scores are between 87 and 92 points – roughly two-thirds of the wines fall into that category. With Suckling two-thirds of the wines are scored between 90 and 93 points – a higher and narrower part of the 100-point scale. It also still blows my mind to see those numbers laid out like that as most critics really only seem very little of the scale. While assuming that both publications score similar or the same wines it seems pretty clear that Suckling’s scores are two to four points above Parker’s, which sometimes are one or two points above my scores.
43 Comments
Super duper sharp! For the record!` Stuff; of course our wee' argh need me armoire(Ahu Tongariki).
My instinct is that a 70-point wine should be flawed but still pleasant. Or maybe even a 50-point wine? How much of the 100-point scale is actually used?
Suppose we have a 3-liter box of table wine that’s US$12. Say it’s not at all special, but competently made and palatable. How would an expert rate it on a 100-point scale? How would it be rated if the entire 100-point range were really in use?
I love your videos, and blind tastings like these are very enjoyable.
For future episodes, it would be very helpful if, when reviewing wine color, you could hold it up against something pure white (clean sheet of paper or white napkin, etc), so we could see the color better on your videos.
Damnnnnnnn Konstantin just said Leon ain’t got no balls 💀💀💀
Back when he was with Wine Spectator, I really appreciated his ratings, and I thought my palate aligned with JS much more closely than with others, such as Robert Parker.
Once he went out on his own, however, JS clearly struggled to maintain relevance, especially early on, and so he played to the market:
He very clearly understood how retail shops sell their wine. A higher score generates more sales. Therefore, retail shops will put the shelf talker with the greatest accolades next to their bottles. When that shelf talker has a James Suckling score, that’s basically a free advertisement for his name and website.
Wine producers may deny it, but they love it when their wines get very high scores, because they can command a higher price and sell more bottles. Therefore, the critic who gives a higher score is more appreciated by these producers, who then give better access to those critics for future tastings, winery, tours, etc..
In other words, JS has worked very hard at self-promotion and personal income, at the cost of credibility among most experienced wine geeks like me.
I still appreciate his palate, however, and therefore I find I can take his review and score, lop +/- 4 points off it, and be happy with the results.
I think Suckling's ratings are actually quite helpful. If I subtract an average of 8 points per each of his ratings, I find myself strongly agreeing.
Who cares about rating, when we have konstantin 😍
Also lol about luca
Your explanations of taste and ratings has, I think, improved my tasting and expanded my enjoyment of wines.
Most of my and my wife’s wine purchases are directly from the vintner or winery. So I would only use ratings when buying a bottle of two while traveling. I have noticed that ratings have inflated wildly. 90 point wines can be sometimes ok but not great (to me), so I’m not so moved by ratings except to filter out bad stuff.
Great video again. Please do Jancis 🙂
Next time, come to our domaine in South of France =) You will be our Guest =)
Do s he have a $148m cellar?
Ich mach das mal auf deutsch, weil ich nicht will, daß jeder versteht, welchen Wein ich hier trinke. Ich glaube, mein Bewertungsschema liegt zwischen Parker und Suckling, und alles ist um die 89 zentriert. Alles unter einer 86 von mir kauf ich nicht nochmal, weil der Alkohol mir mehr schadet als mir der Genuß nützt, und die einzige 98, die ich bisher vergeben habe, war ein 18-jähriger Laphroaig. Ich saufe zu diesem Video regelrecht einen einfachen 2020 Josef Bernard Kieren Graacher Himmelreich Riesling Hochgewächs halbtrocken aus der 1 L Flasche pro 6,30 € (das war einmal) und behaupte, daß dieses kleine Muskat-, Schießpulver- und Limone-Wünderchen zwischen 88 und 89 alles hat, was ein Alltagsriesling braucht. Die goldenen Weinzeiten gehen zu Ende ud ich würde die Tipps aufkaufen, bevor die Millliardäre merken, was namenlose Weingüter so können. Und außerdem erwähne ich den besten aktuellen Tipp zur Bernkasteler Moselschleife nicht !
Always like your laid back, honest style!
Yeah, I don't place much faith in some of the high ratings some "experts" give.
One only has to follow the dots in many cases, as to who sponsors them or their publications in the background.
Cheers Marc D
Agree that Suckling’s scores are biased to the high side. Huge fan of ZH, Alsace is one of my favorite regions. Cheers 🥂
I use James Suckling’s ratings, usually discount them for his upward bias. He has even been rating some Virginia wines, a welcome excursion (my region).
I try to find ones where the scores agree to be honest but i think js pallet is closer to mine because rp rated some stuff high that i just didn't care for.
Thank you for this. I agree that JS score compression makes it harder to sort out what one should expect from a wine. I always subtract about 4, but I’m sure that’s not always true at the top end. But can’t afford that anyway!
Suckling tasting notes are usually spot on vs others. Ratings are where he runs into trouble, but people should be looking at notes over the scores anyways.
I actually do not think the 100 point system is the the best. What the heck is the difference between a wine that is 92 and 93? Or 98 and 99? Ridiculous. A better system is that of corporate credit ratings. AAA, AA+ AA, AA-, for example – or something similar (A+, A, A-, B+, B, etc..). Something simple for people to understand but not a ridiculous attempt to be so exact. If you should not buy a wine under 88, what is the point of having a 100 point system? There should never be a wine under 88 then. Unless you consider 88 as a zero. So you really only have a 12 point system.
Yes I do use Sucklings scores. One caveat is that whatever suckling rates any wine, I just reduce the score by 3-5 points below sucklings scores, to get an reality of what to expect.
If a winery needs a bailout of a disasterous wine, just call Suckling. Oh , and bring your checkbook. Cause wine bars in Singapore are not cheap.
Suckling's scores are generally higher but at least consistent. They do offer a guide for the average wine buyer. Its better than the gold or silver medals that many wines put on their labels. Some of the medals are from dubious wine competitions?
I'm not so much into cork sniffing nowadays. it has become quite expensive, so I go with pretty good but still affordable wine. Vriesenhof Pinot Noir 2009, for example.
Personally the JS high scores are a way for him to be shipped more wines to be reviewed, as vintners are looking for high scores to drive sales and revenue. JS scores are generally 3 points higher than they should be, from my experience.
Thanks for this video. Now I will never ever take any James Suckling rating seriously again.
Great video again. I try to identify the grapes/vines along with your descriptions, super entertaining! 🙂
I discount Suckling's scores by around 4 points, depending on the region. I have a not totally dissimilar palate to Parker especially on American wine. For Champagne I have my own standards and only look to Galloni and Parker for a general reference range.
Another fantastic video!! Thank you very much!! How about including a Swiss wine sometime in one of the videos?? 🙂
JS must have his reason to give 100 to a wine. You might be too quantity focused like all WSET students do, but James maybe more quality focused. For you, a 95 wine should be this level concentrated, that level complex; while James may looking for purity, delicacy, aromas’ finesse… no offense at all. wine is a pleasure, and pleasure shouldn’t be measured by giving score. It cannot be anyway. Love your channel! Very good!
The 100 point system needs to go away
We can occasionally buy wines rated 90+ by JS at our local grocer for about $10 or even less (Argentine malbec, for instance). Of course these are just ordinary everyday quaffs, not distinguished wines. I agree with Konstantin and the comments – it's necessary to make an at least 3 point downward adjustment to arrive at a correct score.
Dude: Stop with the stupid goofy faces in your still photos. It's embaressing.
Is it really a 100 point scale if a 59 point wine is already unacceptable?
Here's a question…..do critics like JS rate wine (with very liberal scores), based on how they show presently, or how they believe they will eventually show??. Since they were all young, did Suckling feel that Faiveley would eventually be a 95 pt wine?.
I tend to discount the credibility of any store that relies on JS scores to sell wines, your video is a great example why. Fun and pacey and smart as always.
I would really appreciate a video about Austria (Wachhau Riesling vs German etc.). You should also try the Wine Batonnage, since it won in a blind tasting against many Premiers Grand Crus and other big names.
Nice content as usual.
I would have liked the video even more if you would not have known that you are competing with JS while tasting. If it would have been revealed to you after your judgements…
I do not use Suckling points. They are Inflated by 5 points. I do agree with you.
How about a Burghound face-off?
Having tasted a lot of inflated Suckling wines I’ve noticed that he seems to prefer rustic earthy styles with higher scores in contrast to the big fruit and oak that made Parker notorious. I suspect that contrast can be synthesized into a more realistic expectation by merchants with their customers.
If you look at Sucklings rating of the Bordeaux En Primeur this year, this shows how irrelevant he is..Jeb Dunnock is also going down this path….Dunnock is supposedly a Rhone expert but can you trust him here when you see how he scores Bordeaux…
@KonstantinBaum maybe you could pull some strings and do a Bordeaux En Primeur video..is the 202 Leoville Las Cases really a 99-100 point wine?
I really enjoyed these videos! Please do one against Neil Martin, as I think his scores are really more aligned with the market (pricing). I do look at suckling scores but don’t take them into account for choosing a good wine, I use it to weed out the ones I definitely won’t buy: if even JS scores low for this, perhaps everyone is being polite to the chateau.
Please also consider doing a video against Jancis Robinson!
After the recent drama on WB about critics rating higher non-blind for fear of being banned by chateaus, I look at overall critics scores, and especially JR because she is consistent blind/unblind.
Finally, if you might start or end the videos on some personal observations on the stylistic preferences a particular critic may have, that will help us greatly in finding the right critic to follow.
Awesome video and great job on the tasting! I agree that Suckling's scores are always inflated. He rates way too many wines in the 95+ range which should only be reserved for the exceptional wines.
Hi, Konstantin. Love this format against renown critics. Can you do this for Jancis Robinson and/or Jeannie Cho Lee?