<p>There was a longish article in the Business section of the New York Times today, discussing a 1-100 ranking system and deploring how pointlessly stupid it was but how market forces kept reducing everything to “the number.”</p>
<p>Okay, the article was talking about ratings of wine as in those of the Wine Spectator, but long paragraphs could have been substituted with no significant changes if the topic had been the US News rankings.</p>
<p>Guilty as charged! When I am scanning the shelves looking for a bottle of wine I will look at the card with the rating (only a few bottles even have them) and I will often choose the wine in my price range with the highest rating. My wife, otoh, will choose the bottle with the most attractive label. :)</p>
<p>did Boone’s Farm or Annie Green Springs make the list?</p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>I don’t drink much wine anymore. The arthritis keeps me from being able to screw off the caps.</p>
<p>Haven’t they ever heard of pull tab cans? If it’s good enough for Bud , it’s good enough for Beaujolais.;)</p>
<p>Too bad about the arthritis and screw caps. If you can’t get to the wine, have you tried the gin-soaked raisins?</p>
<p><a href=“http://arthritis.about.com/od/alternativetreatments/f/raisinsgin.htm[/url]”>http://arthritis.about.com/od/alternativetreatments/f/raisinsgin.htm</a></p>
<p>Terribly off topic. I apologize.</p>
<p>Topic? There’s a topic? Where? Here? </p>
<p>Yep. Ratings are in eye of the beholder. If they agree with me, they are without a doubt accurate.</p>
<p>well put, curmudgeon</p>
<p>LOL, Curmudgeon. :)</p>
<p>I find that, within big groups, I tend to agree with Wine Spectator ratings. If they ditched the 1-100 ranking and instead did about five groups, I would probably agree with them almost all of the time. </p>
<p>Kind of like SATs & intelligence. </p>
<p>Then again, the Aries ranking system has champagne first, then heavy reds (cabs), then other reds, then Reislings, then (gag) normal whites. ;)</p>
<p>Aries, you forget White Zinfandel. :)</p>
<p>Speaking about screwcaps, I remember reading an article about the winemakers serious attempts to find alternatives to the ubiquitous cork. It’s only a matter of time.</p>
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<p>Oh I do the same thing!!!</p>
<p>And lots of students go for the pretty campus. Same thing.</p>
<p>Here’s one of the articles about the “cork” debate. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tswa051226.phtml[/url]”>http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvisor1/tswa051226.phtml</a></p>
<p>Marite, when it comes to wine, students analyze the most important ratio: quantity/price. The “more gallons of liquid per dollar” rules the day. That is why there are no pretty lables on the kegs. :D</p>
<p>Xiggi:</p>
<p>You’re right. But when it comes to choosing colleges, students expect their parents to pay, so they go fo the pretty label, er…, campus.</p>
<p>Aries - always like to hear about a champagne girl! But, ahh, what is a “normal white”?? And how do you feel about true roses? Not Xiggi’s tongue in cheek white zins, but the Tavels of the world??</p>
<p>Yes, yes. Pretty campus and pretty students.</p>
<p>Aries was the one who wrote the lyrics “Life is a cabernet, old chum, life is a cab-er-net.”</p>
<p>I drink red/white/champagne myself as the mood indicates and I’m not too fussy to have chardonnay (white) with steak if I feel like it. There’s a class of chardonnays that includes Grgich Hills, Cakebread Cellars, and Far Niente that I really like and what they have in common is the style of fermentation–and I always forget what it’s called, something like “amolactic”–that most of the chardonnays <em>don’t</em> use.</p>
<p>I don’t often care for sweet wines, a good port or sherry being an exception. (TheMom will sometimes of an evening ask anxiously, “Do you think it might rain?” on the grounds of any port in the storm.) </p>
<p>Thumper, do you bet on horses based on the color of the jockey’s silks?</p>
<p>'Mudge, TheMom said that marrying me ruined her for cheap wine; when she was single, she often kept a screw-off bottle in the 'fridge.</p>
<p>For those who visit wine country, I have a rule of thumb: the better the tour, the worse the wine. “Tour”, not “tasting.” Chandon in Napa has a very nice tasting. What I don’t get is the people who go on tasting tours to get blotzed. When I’m on California 46 near Paso Robles et al, I drive <em>extremely</em> defensively.</p>
<p>And…funny…I can never tell which topics will take a life of their own. Or would have guessed how quickly this went down the “wine” line of discussion instead of “ratings.”</p>
<p>It makes me wonder if people date & marry according to what other people think instead of trusting their own judgment.</p>
<p>wheee! Glad to see everybody’s in such a great mood this morning. All this talk of wine so early in the day is making me a little dizzy though. :)</p>
<p>TheDad, </p>
<p>I’d never heard of Cakebread until three days ago, and now it comes up again. Must be a sign to look it for on the wine shelf next time I’m at Pick & Save. I’m kidding. Really.</p>
<p>Throw away the over-oak of California and Chardonnay can be sublime. Good white Bordeaux. Or, my personal favorite the white Rhone and Languedoc wines that make use of marsanne and roussane. But nothing has a greater taste/cost ratio than a good St. Chinian red. </p>
<p>And yes, comparing dry rose’s to that white zinfandel swill should be illegal.</p>
<p>Anxiously awaiting my replacement Koolspace unit to arrive via UPS so I can replace the old one in my cabinet.</p>
<p>In attempt to redeem myself for the White Zin zinger, I’m offering this to Aries–along the required olive branch:</p>
<p>It starts with one of my dad’s favorite trivia QAs. </p>
<p>Which wine did the Kings of “France” drink at their coronation in Reims? Hint: it is not Champagne.</p>