Score Whores

The wine industry has this group of know-it-alls called "experts" from different wine publications and web sites and their jobs are to taste wine and give them a score on a scale from 1-100 on what they think is good.  Some of these "experts" have too much power over wines.  When a wine I have been carrying for 5 months suddenly gets a perfect score of 100 or near perfect score, the wine sells out almost immediately.  The people that buy these wines, I call, Score Whores.

The Score Whore doesn't care what the wine tastes like.  But, if their "expert of choice" gave it a high score, it has to be a good wine.  This is fine if your palate and personal tastes are like the so-called-expert, but my experience has been that I usually prefer different things.  I use these scores as benchmarks, not the holy grail.

But, scores sell.  So, yes, I do include them in e-mails to my high-end guys and on displays in the store, but generally, you're better off asking a trusted wine shop professional like myself if I've tasted the wine and liked it.  The worst Score Whore is the one who approaches me in the store and asks me for a $20 red that scored 95 points or more or when I recommend a wine and the first question he asks is "What score did it get?"  Do they think I memorize scores?  It's hard enough memorizing all those villages in France or how much my wines cost!  If I'm recommending something, it's good.  Trust me.  My reputation is on the line.  If I give you something that tastes bad, you'll never trust me again to make a recommendation and you may never come back. 

But, the Score Whores stick to the scores and nothing but the scores.  And I wish he would stick those scores somewhere else!

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