Wine scores that don’t add up

 This week I had the opportunity to taste two wines that came with critical scores.  One was rated 95 points while the other was rated 89.  95 points should be a fantastic score which only a few wines produced each year ever achieve.  On the other hand, 89 points is a bit of a let-down for a wine that retails for upwards of $80.  But do aged wines always deliver on their scores?

August 27, 2012 – Wine:  2005 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape (95 points WS)

Having thoroughly enjoyed other 95 point wines, I was eager to try this one.  I had only ever tried two other CdP wines before, and found them to be quite likeable (even with lower scores), and I was hoping to broaden my experience.  The wine had a nice nose, but the palette was off balance, with flavors of sour cherry, iced tea, lime, anise, and minerals, with a very tannic finish.  The wine lacked any kind of wow-factor that I would have expected from a wine that scored 95 points, be it richness, elegance, or flavor.  A number of things could have caused this wine to end so far from its original score, including bottle variation and aging, but it leads me to be suspicious of how some wines are rated.  (This was #3 on Wine Spectators top 100 Wines for 2007.)

2005 Le Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf-du-Pape

August 30, 2012 – Wine:  2007 Hourglass Blueline Vineryard Merlot (89 points WS)

By contrast, a wine that scores 89 points has just missed the mark, and typically lacks an important feature.  Usually, the wine lacks balance, texture, flavor, or any sort of wow-factor.  When applied to a bottle that retails for nearly $80, that is practically a failure.  I had heard a little about Hourglass from friends, and Hourglass sells their wines in half-bottles, so I was eager to try them.  Purchasing the half-bottles directly from the winery was a bit of a challenge as it seems you had to have previously bought their wines to buy some from this vintage.  I convinced the kind woman to sell me a few bottles and laid them down.  Upon opening this bottle, there was a good nose.  After being open for two hours, the tannins finally relented and what was left was a gorgeous, rich Merlot with flavors of dark cherry, cranberry, subtle mineral, and a terrific finish.  In other words, wow!  Not having tasted this wine when young, I cannot understand how it scored only 89 points (unless they factored in the purchasing experience).  This is clearly a wine that was properly built for aging.

2007 Hourglass Blueline Vineyard Merlot