How Does Wine Scoring Work?

Messina Hof’s GSM wine has been featured as a “Top Picks for Red Blends You Need to Have” from VinePair. Our well-loved GSM was ranked highly and earned a total score of 91 points!

Who is VinePair? VinePair is a digital publication highlighting trends and topics within the wine, beer, and spirits world. Through entertaining and engaging content around drinks culture, they celebrate experiences and connections you can make with a glass in hand.

With podcasts, recipes, blogs, articles, and news updates in the beverage industry, it is safe to consider VinePair as the one-stop shop many are looking to for information on their favorite drinks. With that being said, we are excited to hold a spot in their 25 of the Best Red Blends for 2023 with our GSM wine.

“Oh, man, this one is fun. It has prominent herby notes among the dark fruit feels on the nose. The palate has some awesome viscosity with lively acidity. This is a bottle ready for a slight chill and fire up the grill.”– VinePair

Our GSM is a combination of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre grape varietals that make up one of our most popular wine selections. Due to the nature of these grapes by themselves, the mixture of various tannin, flavor, and aroma characteristics work beautifully together to create a medium-bodied wine that leaves the palate with a blended synergy of rich flavors like blackberry, dark cherry, and plum with a hint of spice.

What makes this wine unique is that it can be enjoyed as an everyday wine. This hearty blend pairs wonderfully with savory meats like pork or lamb complemented with blends of herbs and peppery spices. While it can create a harmony between fancier dishes, it also takes your day-to-day pizza or burgers to another level.

This wine holds a 91 rating which earned it a spot in VinePair’s Top 25 breakdown, but what is a wine score and what does it really mean?

 

A brief overview of the point scale from Wine Spectator: 

• 95-100: Classic: a great wine; a wine with a rating this high is a benchmark example of what a wine of its nature should taste like

• 90-94: Outstanding: a wine of superior character and style

• 85-89: Very Good: a wine with special qualities

• 80-84: Good: a solid, well-made wine

• 75-79: Mediocre: a drinkable wine that may have minor flaws

• 50-74: Not Recommended

 

This scoring system is based on the 100-point scale. This is the most common method for scoring wines among many sommeliers, wine professionals, and during competitions. The easiest way to remember this system when shopping for wine is similar to how assignments were graded in school (90-100=A+, 80-89= B, 50-74=C-). Knowing where a wine is ranked within the generic scale is the first step to identifying an award-winning wine.

Looking further into the rating scale, there are two main characteristics that are key to any highly rated wine. These traits are production quality and typicity. “Production quality” is more self-explanatory and refers to the factors that go into producing the wine, but what about “typicity?” Typicity refers to how well the wine represents the region of the world where it is from. For Messina Hof, that is a measurement of how well we showcase the wine region in Texas through our wines.

 

Here are a few additional elements that can also provide a wine with a higher score:

• How does the wine look? Does it maintain good color and overall appearance? This provides up to 5 points.
• How does the wine smell on the nose? Does it have a rich complexity? A wine can score up to 15 points based on aroma.
• How is the flavor profile? Is it long-lasting? A wine can receive up to 20 points in this area.
• Finally, consider the overall quality. This attributes up to 10 of 100 points.

 

Ratings differ from one wine spectator to the next based on personal preferences and palates, there are critics who enjoy a bolder wine while others enjoy a subtler one. Due to the nature of competitive wine ratings, the commonly average rated wine falls just around an 87-point score. Receiving a 91 score on our GSM is not only an honor to the dedication and respect we give to each bottle, but also means this outstanding wine is of superior character and style for its class!

If you are looking to add this acclaimed wine into your wine collection, visit your nearest Messina Hof location (Bryan, Fredericksburg, Grapevine, and Richmond, TX). You can also shop GSM through our online store, and have it delivered to your door. No stress, no hassle, just award-winning wine. You are one stop, or one click away, from enjoying a glass of highly rated wine. Cheers!