To us, the most important thing about wine is the pleasure of enjoying it with families and friends. The second most important thing is learning to enjoy it and learning to enjoy more of it. Not only is wine personal, it is also an egalitarian product with huge price and flavor variations that cater to just about any budget and preference. Everyone is entitled to have their own expectation. As such, it is difficult to be 100% objective when scoring a wine. That said, friends and readers often request recommendations of specific producers and bottles, so we’ve scattered many suggestions throughout the website. They’ve also asked for specific guidance when it comes to buying wine.

There are many subjective factors that influence the way we score a wine, such as our affinity for the producer, personal preference, and quality-price ratio. Regardless, a score would make an easy reference to represent the quality of a wine and which wine we like better.

Newest Articles (published on our site after November 2018)

Thanks to feedback from you, our readers, we will shift from the Vivino 5 star scale to the 100-point system. In some instances, you will see scores from both Matt (MH) and Charine (CT) since we don’t always agree. 

95-100 points = A quintessence with long aging potential

90-94 points = Exceptional wine with medium-term aging potential

85-89 points = Good to very good wine for immediate consumption or with short-term aging potential

80-84 points = Drinkable wine

< 80 points = Faulty or bad wine

A few things to note when reading our scores. 

• We both have an affinity for orange/amber wines which are an acquired taste for many.
• Matt has a high tolerance for Brett (Brettanomyces), like some examples from Rhône (France) and Central Italy. 
• Charine has a tendency to gravitate towards rich wines that are highly structured.
• Our highest scored wine ever on the site is a Harlan Estate 2014 – (99/100 or 4.9/5)

Previous Articles (published on our site prior to November 2018)

Our articles published before October 2018 use a five-point system. The five-point system is the same as Vivino, a social and wine-rating platform we use.

We rate wine using a 5-point system with one decimal place.

Note: A ≥4.2 score on Exotic Wine Travel is equivalent to 90 points.

Authorship Integrity
We do not sell editorial content as that would destroy the legitimacy of our reviews and the trust between Exotic Wine Travel and its readers.

On occasion, we extend the option of purchasing the wines we review and the products we spotlight. Some of these product links are set up through affiliate programs, which means Exotic Wine Travel gets referral credits if you choose to purchase these items via the links we provide. Please note that these recommendations are made based on what we appreciate, and we believe you would find value in them too; we offer no preferential treatment to any product.