Prominent wine critics can make or break a wine’s reputation. The world’s most quoted reviewers—like Robert Parker (Zeus in the Pantheon of wine writers), Stephen Tanzer and critics at Wine Spectator—have often been accused of having style or regional biases. But I’ve sampled the same wines the powerhouse critics have countless times, and we almost always score them within two or three points of each other. While likes and dislikes are subjective, wine has quantifiable properties—such as purity, complexity, balance and flavour depth—that can be measured. And now that ratings are widely expressed as a score out of 100 points (a system Parker pioneered), we’re all using the same matrix.

Like wine retailers everywhere, the LCBO’s Vintages division relies on third-party ratings to woo consumers. They don’t publish ratings that are less than effusive (rarely below 89 points), and they cast a wide net to find positive reviews (which is why you’ll sometimes see bottles in the Vintages catalogue reviewed by, say, The Arizona Republic). On February 2, however, Vintages released several wines rated at 90 points or better by established critics. So here is a chance to buy by the numbers and tune your palate to the critics’. I recommend that you use the numbers as a guide to find the best new wines and values among styles and regions you already like. But you should also take some chances with unfamiliar bottles. After all, connoisseurship is not about drinking the most expensive wine; it’s knowing the range and choosing the right wine for the right occasion.

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