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I’ve been reading Neal Rosenthal’s book “Reflections of a Wine Merchant” for the last few days and I’m starting to triangulate this, with recent events, to change the course of this blog and podcast. Around page 144 Mr. Rosenthal starts his attack on wine ratings and he makes a lot of sense to me although he would likely comment how much of an amateur I am here (or worse, as the owner of a San Francisco wine bar once did in email… but that’s another story).

Money quote:

“There is little journalism, which is to say fact findings and reporting, and virtually no effective prose; there is, however, a series of judgments backed by a sadly limited descriptive vocabulary and powered by precise scores.”

Therefore, from now forward, I will drop the 100-point rating scale in my reviews and use my proposed standard 5-star scale. That is, until I decide to drop that as well. I will endeavor to provide more investigative journalism and concentrate on my prose. A review of Neal Rosenthal’s prose is forthcoming.