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How We Select Wine
A Policy Statement
Before I got into the wine business, I spent many years as a confused wine shopper. While I subscribed to all the major wine publications, I still found myself at a loss most of the time while trying to actually choose from the jumbled selection most wine stores presented. “Let's see, which Rosenblum single vineyard Zinfandel did Wine Spectator score a 90 and which one got the 83?” Invariably I came home with the 83! The Grapevine Cottage is the kind of wine store I always wanted to shop in, but could never find.
Our Wine Selection Criteria
Regardless of what Gallo would like us to believe, wine is not an exact science. The same wine varietals vary wildly between regions, winemaking styles, and vintages. The same variability that makes wine difficult to select is the very characteristic that gives wine its charm. With the exception of the Broadway stage, there is perhaps no other business that is as critic-driven as the wine industry. Why else would there be an entire magazine and website industry devoted to the reviewing and rating of wines?
Our theory is that about 1/3 of all the wine produced is just plain bad to mediocre but drinkable, another 1/3 is drinkable but not very interesting, and about 1/3 is good to exceptional. Our goal is to only choose from the top third when we select wines for the store. With thousands of wines to choose from, we use the magazine reviews, along with a lot of tasting, to help us do just that.
We try to taste every wine we put on the shelf, and with the exception of highly allocated wines like Turley Zinfandels or Seasmoke Pinot Noirs, we do. We primarily select our wines based upon reviews from the country's six top wine publications Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, Antonio Galloni's Vinous, James Suckling and Jeb Dunnuck.
These publications rate wines based upon a 50 or 70 to 100 scale that is generally defined as:
95 - 100 Extraordinary – classic
90 - 94 Outstanding – wine of superior character
85 - 89 Very Good – wine with special qualities
80 - 84 Good – well-made wine
70 - 79 Average – drinkable but flawed wine
60 - 69 Below Average – drinkable but not recommended
50 - 59 Poor – undrinkable
You may have noticed that we typically only select wines that have been scored 90 points or higher. We also find many excellent small-production wines that have escaped the scrutiny of the critics and bring them in as Wine Guy Selections. Every wine is accompanied by cellar cards that carry a reprint of the review or our thoughts on the wine and are available for you to take.
Here is what has been going on with our selected reviewers:
Wine Guy Selections
Our entire staff participates in the tastings and they are a highly experienced group of wine lovers with very discerning tastes. Just ask Mark Finch about Spanish reds, Mark Gapinski about anything Italian, Carlene Clark about California Cabernet, Jim Bandy about Burgundy or Champagne, and Mat McGraw about pretty much anything wine-related. Not to mention the rest of the staff, including me, who have pretty much spent their lifetimes around wine.
Wine Advocate - Website
It was founded in 1978 by Robert Parker; while he did not invent the 100-point wine quality scale, it was his Publication that made it the standard. It is available online only at $129 a year, which includes access to the website, archives, and articles. Robert Parker sold the Wine Advocate and stepped down as editor-in-chief in 2013. He has now retired as a Wine Reviewer. However, the current team of reviewers seems to be upholding Parker's reputation for honest reviews very well.
Wine Spectator - Magazine & Website
Founded in 1976 and purchased by its current publisher and editor, Marvin Shanken, in 1979, it is the leading wine culture lifestyle magazine with a circulation of almost 400,000 copies and an extensive online presence. I find Wine Spectator reviews to be very reliable, and they tend to be a bit stingier with points than the other publications. While you can pretty much guarantee that a 94-point score on a $150 Napa Cabernet will make a good choice for your cellar, just don't look to them to review much of anything under $25.
Wine Enthusiast - Magazine & Website
Founded by Adam Strum in 1988, it is a lifestyle magazine and free website covering wine, food, and travel that skews its target audience to be decidedly younger than Wine Spectator. The magazine reaches over 680,000 readers and contains an extensive buying guide where they review up to 1,000 wines a month.
We think Wine Enthusiast reviews are generally very reliable, in spite of the fact they tend to be a little more enthusiastic when it comes to awarding points. What really works for us is that they are much more egalitarian in their choices of wines to review. They spend time finding the values, especially in California and Washington, reviewing all those $15 to $25 wines that other publications snub. There are plenty of great wines out there that sell for less than $20, and Wine Enthusiast is one of the best tools for finding them.
Jeb Dunnuck - Website Only
Dunnuck, who hails from Muncie, Indiana, but now lives in Colorado, launched the "The Rhône Report" publication and website in 2008 and began releasing a quarterly newsletter reviewing Rhône-variety wines from around the world that became very popular. In 2013, Dunnuck was approached by Robert Parker to join The Wine Advocate, and from 2013 to 2017, he reviewed wines for Wine Advocate. In 2017, Dunnuck left the Wine Advocate to create his own Publication. Jeb is very reliable, and he is the one responsible for helping us find all those great red Rhône and Spanish values you have been drinking.
Antonio Galloni Vinous - Website Only
Wine Advocate's long time Italy and California wine reviewer, Antonio Galloni, who everyone assumed was Parker's heir apparent, left to found his own online website, Vinous, that we have been using now for over eight years. I find their reviews to be very reliable, although they do tend to favor "Old World" wine styles.
James Suckling - Website Only
We use James Suckling's wine reviews very selectively. James was Wine Spectator's European editor from 1985 until 2010, so his credentials as a reviewer are beyond question. However, I am convinced that he just likes to see his name on shelf talkers and online because he can be very generous when awarding points. Since he lives in Tuscany, I find him very reliable on Italian wines but just a little too generous everywhere else. So if you see a 93-point Suckling Pinot Noir, think 90 points from anyone else.
Best Value Wines
When you walk in the store you are bound to notice lots of featured wines with a $.99 price ending stacked around the store. Don't think that these are the wines we are trying to close out - they are the wines we have selected as great values and purchased in quantities large enough to receive the maximum discount. The discounted prices on those wines usually reflect a 10% to 15% discount from the suggested retail price, or more if the wine is a vintage close out. These are the kind of wines you will find stacked:
We Bought a Bunch Price — These are the wines we believe in! They are usually an exceptional wine that represents an exceptional value, like the Rosenblum Petite Sirah 2004 that we are featuring at $17.99 (Wine Advocate 92, Wine Spectator 90 points - suggested retail $20). These are usually very highly rated wines that I buy in whatever quantity it takes to get the lowest possible price and stockpile before the rating causes it to sell out.
Wine Guy Selections — You will sometimes see wines that are labeled Wine Guy Selections. These are typically wines that have not been rated that are small production, specialty wines like those from Peter Rosback at Sineann or Joe Barton at Grey Wolf that I think are just plain exceptional. The tasting notes you see on these wines will be ours.
Vintage Closeout — a good quality wine with a magazine score of 85 or higher that we have been able to purchase at a reduced price because the winery or distributor is trying to move through to a new vintage. We very cautious about closeouts, always tasting before we buy.
Case Discounts
The Wine Guy offers a 10% discount on the purchase of any mixed case of wine. Wines with prices ending in .99 are pre-discounted and not subject to additional discounts. Sale wines do, however, count as part of a case to earn a case discount on the non-sale bottles.
Wine Guy Guarantee
If you by a case of wine or even a couple of bottles and don’t like it, just return the remaining unopened bottles for an exchange or refund. We also know that wine is subject to damage from dry or leaking corks, known as oxidation or TCA contamination, when a bottle is referred to as corked. If you suspect you have a bad bottle, please return it to us for replacement.
January 17, 2024
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