The Four Categories of Wine

by Greg Thomson

In my mind, there are only four categories of wine – not good, good, great, and superb.  On a number of occasions, I have opened a wine, tasted it, and then promptly dumped it down the sink and started again.  It wasn’t off necessarily; it was just “not good,” and as they say, life is too short …  

The next category of wines are the ones I usually end up drinking, as most wines fall into this category.  They are good.  They are enjoyable, they often have some interesting feature, but they are nothing special and easily forgotten.  Many low-priced wines can be found in this category.  People often recommend their new favourite wine and I would classify it as being merely “good.”  This likely happens because the recommender is so impressed with the price, and the wine’s not bad.  I’m always wary of the words “for the price.”

Next, come the wines that are “great.”  These wines make me stop and take that second deep sniff before drinking.  And then the flavour caresses my taste buds with something that is truly intriguing or wonderfully harmonious.  I love finding one of these at a reasonable price.  And when I do, I usually go back and buy a case of it.  Unfortunately, these wines are often priced far above their worth and are great to experience, once.

Finally, there are those wines that make me stop completely and, if I hadn’t already, I decant the remainder of the bottle and proceed to enjoy one of the most sensuous experiences – a superb wine.  I’ve probably only had this experience a dozen or so times in my life – a wine that just blows my socks off – but this is the Holy Grail of wine tasting, what I hope for secretly every time I walk down a wine aisle in the LCBO.

In terms of scoring, one of my pet peeves is how closely bunched up wine scoring is.  When I moved to a 100-point scale, I felt that it would allow for a much finer separation of scoring; however, I quickly realized that if I scored a wine at 80 (which, back in school was considered pretty darn good) it was viewed as a complete pan of the wine.  In fact, I would say that 95% of wine reviews fall within the range of 87 and 94 points, with only horrible schlock falling below 87 and mostly champagnes, icewines, and other specialty wines rating 95 or better – other than those absolute gems.

For my four-category system above, not good wines would fall below 88, good wines would rate 88 or 89, great wines are 90 to 93 and superb wines rate 94 and over.  So there really is very little wiggle room in the scoring after all.

Swell Chardonnays

Match Book Old Head Chardonnay, California, 2008 ($17.95) 91
Mmmm – peaches and cream with floral overtones that tingle my tongue. As it warms, it takes on a toasty finish that adds intrigue. A superb value for Chardonnay lovers.

Blackstone Winery Sonoma Reserve Chardonnay, 2007 ($22.95) 90
Nice medium-cream with citrus hints and a clean fresh finish. 14.5% alcohol but otherwise not an over-the-top Chardonnay – rich flavour but easy to drink.

Riverstone J. Lohr Chardonnay, California, 2009 ($18.75) 89
A surprising find that is always a favourite at get-togethers. Peach upfront followed by a lime finish provide a very interesting flavour that continually makes me want just one more glass.

Louis Jadot Bourgogne Chardonnay, California, 2007 ($18.75) 88
Much like our old cottage favourite, Louis Latour, this Chardonnay is a cool mix of tropical fruit flavour with a steely finish. A perfect example of a “good” wine – sure to please but nothing extraordinary.