“In total, is this bottle punching below, at, or above its price (MSRP)?”
First time using our reviews? Check out the Palates page. If you like what our taste buds tell us, then we are confident our reviews will guide you toward finding the right bottle for you.
Our rating system is broken out like this:
Flavor = 40 points
Finish = 20 points
Aroma = 10 points
Mouth-Feel = 10 points
Unique Experience = 10 points
Value = 10 points
The default values start the bottle at 45 points – we consider this the score for an “average” bottle.
Flavor – King of the drink, but highly subjective. However, we believe there are commonalities we can speak to that will help you decide on the right bottle. Because flavor is king, we assigned the possibility of 40 points. We focus a lot of time and effort delving into flavor on each sip.
Finish – This may be controversial, but we picked finish as being slightly more important than aroma. Even if something smells great, if it has a bitter finish, will you keep drinking it? Probably not. With that logic, we assigned finish with the possibility of 20 points. Our hope is that the sip will have magnificent flavor and finish with us wanting more.
Aroma – While aroma falls slightly behind finish in our evaluation process, it is very much a key element to the enjoyment of that pour sitting in front of you. It helps build anticipation and can create the idea in your head of what it will taste like. We assigned the possibility of 10 points to aroma to help us accurately portray whether that idea is correct or not.
Mouth-Feel – Often left out of the discussion, mouth-feel is still an important factor when scoring a pour. That feeling of dryness in your mouth or a lingering sting can quickly detract from an otherwise quality experience. Maybe it doesn't completely dissuade you from pouring another one, but important enough to consider in the context of whether you are buying a bottle of your own. 10 points possible in the mouth-feel category.
Unique Experience – An experience which is exceptionally different from others, thus creates a feeling of excitement, curiosity, interest, contentment and makes the experience memorable. Sometimes we come across rare bottles, expensive bottles, unique blends, unique finishes, etc., that just blow our hair back. We assigned the possibility of 10 points here, but zero is the default.
Value – Back to the question about where the bottle is punching. How much did this bottle cost? Based on the ratings for each category above and our experience with other bottles, where does it stand? A bottle punching at its weight class is 5 points, then moves up or down from there.