Has your 90 pter changed?

[g-man]

I've wondered as I drank more and more ports if my benchmark "what I give 90 pts" to has changed.

And thinking back, I still judge my 90 pts to a croft 94/00 that I have in my head.

How about you guys?

[Chris Doty]

Interesting question. I have only been drinking for a few years, and am a VERY tough grader, but I must believe a lot of people would need to adjust their scoring over time as they taste more expensive wines.

To me, the 90 point threshold is less about a specific benchmark wine in mind, and more about a feeling of excitement and contentment that the wine elicits. A feeling of 'Wow! Now, THIS is good wine.'

For reference, a few recent 90 point ports for me are: 1970 Gould, 1983 Warre, and 2000 Vesuvio.

[Glenn E.]

My benchmark is an 89-ptr, which for me is the '99 Roriz. Gotta beat the '99 Roriz to get 90+ points.

Lately I've been trying to adjust my scores down. 90-95 is supposed to be "outstanding" after all, and I fear that I have been awarding scores in that range too frequently. Not that I can think of any specific examples that I scored too high, but it sure seems like I drink an awful lot of "outstanding" Port if my scores are accurate! I'm pretty comfortable with my 95-100 "extraordinary" range.

85-90 is supposed to be "excellent," right? Perhaps my problem is that I'm not sure what the difference between "excellent" and "outstanding" really is.

[g-man]

My benchmark is an 89-ptr, which for me is the '99 Roriz. Gotta beat the '99 Roriz to get 90+ points.

Lately I've been trying to adjust my scores down. 90-95 is supposed to be "outstanding" after all, and I fear that I have been awarding scores in that range too frequently. Not that I can think of any specific examples that I scored too high, but it sure seems like I drink an awful lot of "outstanding" Port if my scores are accurate! I'm pretty comfortable with my 95-100 "extraordinary" range.

85-90 is supposed to be "excellent," right? Perhaps my problem is that I'm not sure what the difference between "excellent" and "outstanding" really is.

85-90 is very good
90-94 is excellent
95-100 is classic i believe.

btw, do you judge the 90 pters by decade?

I realize that i should perhaps start doing that
find a 90 pter in each of the decades to compare against.

[Glenn E.]

Looked it up on

• 95-100 Classic: a great wine
  90-94 Outstanding: wine with superior character & style
  85-89 Very good: wine with special qualities
  80-84 Good: a solid, well-made wine
  70-79 Average: drinkable wine that may have minor flaws
  60-69 Below average: drinkable wine but not recommended
  50-59 Poor: undrinkable wine, not recommended

So that actually makes me feel better because it makes my 85-59 ratings sound more like what I mean by them.

I do still need to work at bringing my scores down, though, because according to the system a Port with a minor flaw should only rate 70-79 and I've been rating those 85-89. Or are a bit of a harsh bite or alcohol that's a little too hot not considered a flaw in this sense?

btw, do you judge the 90 pters by decade?

Not yet, no. In fact I don't even attempt to rate future performance - my ratings are just how the Port tasted today because I don't feel confident predicting how a Port is going to turn out in 10 or 20 or 50 years.

My big stuggle right now is how to rate tawnies and rubies using the same scale, because a 95-point tawny and a 95-point ruby are very different Ports.

[Axel P]

Very good topic. I do believe that the more you drink the less points you are giving.

From my perspective this results from more outstanding ports in your memory and therefore one does reflect much more if the freshly tasted port lives up to this or the ones with the same points.

I do think that when starting to judge ports one would give the 20 or 100 points more easily than with more years of experience. I do wonder how others might see this.

Axel

[uncle tom]

My benchmark is an 89-ptr, which for me is the '99 Roriz. Gotta beat the '99 Roriz to get 90+ points

.

Funny you should mention that Glenn. Most of the big SQ's gave '99 a miss, and I was wondering only yesterday if my dozen Roriz '99 might be six too many.

Although I won't contemplate popping any for at least six years, I think now I'll hang on to them!

Tom

[Glenn E.]

I was wondering only yesterday if my dozen Roriz '99 might be six too many.

No, not at all. I wish I had a dozen, but sadly I'm down to 3. I like it, and with a couple more years I will probably revise my score upwards. When I last tasted it there was a bit of a sharp edge to the tannins and it seemed like it might be a bit over extracted, but nothing that a few more years in the bottle couldn't fix. Plenty of nice black fruits and good acidity, so it seems very cellar-worthy.