How we review

Every wine on Winetrust carries a score out of 100. This page explains where that number comes from, so you can decide how much weight to give it.

Nothing below 87 is listed.
A wine that scores below 87 under our rubric doesn’t get a lower shelf or a clearance tag — it doesn’t appear at all. The catalogue is the shortlist. And if a wine we already list falls below 87 on reassessment, it is removed.

The scale.
Wines are scored against a fixed, weighted rubric — not impressions:

• Flavour — 50 points. Nose 15, palate 25, finish 10.
• Structure — 25 points. Acidity, tannin, alcohol, oak.
• Balance & harmony — 15 points. Whether the wine works as a whole.
• Presentation — 10 points. Condition, colour, packaging at the price point.

The total is computed from the component scores. Nobody types “94” into a box.

What the number tells you to do.
A Winetrust score is purchase advice, not decoration:

• 93+ — Cellar-worthy. Buy a case. Exceptional quality, suited to drinking now or ageing.
• 90–92 — Buy a case with confidence. Excellent wine. A confident purchase, without reservation.
• 87–89 — For the table, not the cellar. Good wine for drinking now — not one to age.
• Below 87 — you’ll never see it.

Who scores, and how.
Scores are published by the Winetrust Cellar Team, collectively — no individual bylines. Each assessment is built from the evidence available to a serious merchant: our own tastings across the trade, the producer’s technical detail — pH, acidity, oak regime, harvest conditions — the character of the vintage, and the wine’s track record. Every component is scored against the rubric above and the total is computed. We assess with full knowledge of producer, vintage and price, because context informs an accurate reading — we would rather be transparent about that than perform blind objectivity.

Price never touches the score.
The score measures quality only. Whether a wine is worth its price is a separate judgement — so a $30 triumph and a $300 benchmark are each read on their own terms.

Scores age, like the wine.
Listings are reassessed as wines evolve and new evidence arrives. If our reading of a wine changes materially, the score changes with it — and if it falls below 87, the wine leaves the catalogue.

Keeping ourselves honest.
Score inflation is the quiet disease of wine reviewing. So we publish our target distribution: roughly 40% of scores at 87–89, 40% at 90–92, 15% at 93–95 and 5% at 96 or above — and we audit the spread against it. If more than a third of our scores are landing at 93+, the problem is our scoring, and we’ll say so.

Every wine scored. Every score explained.