1. C&C Rating System

In the wine industry, the use of a zero to 100 rating scale is very common, although for all practical reasons that scale only goes from 70 to 100, with a wine rated 70 being pretty mediocre.

This blog does not use the numerical 100-basis rating system, but a verbal evaluation system that is explained below. I prefer this system because I think it is easier for non-geeky readers to understand and because I think the 100-basis system has just too many minuscule nuances to clearly convey a difference between wines that are rated only one or two steps from one another.

For instance, while it may be immediately clear to everyone that a wine that is rated 95 has been considered a much better wine than one that is rated 80, things get blurrier when one needs to explain the difference between a wine rated 93 and one rated 94… Does it mean that the latter is 1% better than the former? If so, then my nose and palate must be quite uneducated because I cannot tell so tiny a quality difference between two wines. Hat’s off to those who can!

However, at the request of several readers, I have associated each of my verbal quality assessments with a 1 to 5 heart rating system. This gives more of a visual clue of my evaluations, which seems to be helpful to some, and at the same time it does not bog me down in splitting hair to identify 1% quality differences. I think it is a good compromise.

This is my grading scale explained, from top to bottom:

 – Spectacular
 – Outstanding
 – Very Good
 – Good to Very Good
 – Good
 – Fairly Good
 – Disappointing
 – Blah!

2. C&C Pricing System

I have indicated the average retail price in the US (in USD) for each of the wines that I have reviewed, and, based on such price, I have categorized each wine in one of the following five classes:

$$$$$ – $100 and above
$$$$ – Between $61 and $99
$$$ – Between $41 and $60
$$ – Between $21 and $40
$ – $20 and below

For wines that are not yet imported to the US, I have indicated their average retail price in EUR and categorized each of them in the appropriate class among those listed below:

€€€€€ – €100 and above
€€€€ – Between €61 and €99
€€€ – Between €41 and €60
€€ – Between €21 and €40
€ – €20 and below