TN: Barbera d'Asti.

[JonoB]

2010 Barbera d'Asti Superiore "Old Vines"; Poderi Elia
wood, spice and plum on the nose, elegant and fresh with herbs and flowers on the palate. Quite chocolate-y and woody on the finish. A touch of must, vanilla and perfume. Nice length, but it seems a bit subdued. It hints at some depth, poise and power underneath, but it seems to fade in and out of itself. Red plum, cherry... Creamy, with some decent minerality and a salinity poking through. 61+/100  

[Claret]

61 points?

Around here we see plenty of Barbera from the Sierra Foothills and not so much from Italy. The grape seems to do well on the decomposed granite Eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Moutains at elevations up to about 2000 feet in El Dorado County. Certainly richer than Italian versions but tasty none the less.

[DavidG]

61 is actually a good score in Jono's book He's got a bizarre scoring system that is totally out of synch with everyone else's and makes absolutely no sense unless he posts his rating scale. He used to do that. It's a simple enough thing to put it in as part of your signature. Maybe he stopped because he figures it will generate some discussion?

[JonoB]

David, if for some reason is too long to fit in the signature.

I have tried on numerous occasions but to no avail.

Perhaps the BD can advise on how to go about that??

[DavidG]

Well, suffice to say that Jono's scale is 0-100, not 50-100, so 61 really is a good score.

[Tom In DC]

Ummm, post it on your blog (already linked at the top level in your signature) and add a link to that post (JonoB's Scoring System (wherein 59 is a respectable score!)) to your sig?

[JonoB]

Thanks Tom, I will get on to that.

[Tom In DC]

Jono Beagle's hundred point scoring system.
0-29/100 not worth bothering with
30-49/100 good wine but I wouldn't buy a case
50-59/100 very good showing grape and terroir character
60-69/100 excellent example of a wine from this country/region/grape
70-85/100 one of the very best wines that the region has to offer.
86-100/100 one of the very best wines you are ever likely to drink

OK, so I gather that you believe we all need a new way to grade wines, but let me see if I have this right. At the bottom, we have 30 different gradations of "not worth bothering with", correct? I suppose one must drink a lot of swill to be able to identify 30 different levels thereof. Dante only identified 9 levels of hell.

Meanwhile at the top, we have 15 different grades for "one of the very best wines you are ever likely to drink." What a wonderful life a person must have to taste so many of the greatest wines as to be able to rank them in 15 distinct tiers. And how exactly does such a wine, presumably from a region, propel itself beyond the 70-85 range where the very best wines of said region reside?

Moving on, based on your scores in this and other tasting notes here on BWE rated with your new system, all of which are above the 20 gradations set aside for "good but I wouldn't buy a case", does this mean you've bought a case of everything you've reviewed?

I'm just trying to discern what is added to the dialectic by yet another rating system...

[JonoB]

Tom, I have based it on a UK University (at least a serious one) grading system. So the boundaries are arbitrary but effectively what makes sense coming from my educational background where you don't get 50 for turning up and 10 for writing your name. In fact getting above 60 is an achievement, 70 is a brilliant event and 80 would get your essay published in an academic journal. 40 or 50 depending on the UNI is a pass.

At the end of the day, I'm trying it out and seeing how it fits. I'm not trying to teach people to suck eggs, and I'm not claiming that I do what is written in the text (I would owe more than the British Government if I did that ) so they are hypothetical... I would.

I did speak to someone about the differences between mine and a 0-10 scale. So effectively 60-69 is a 6, but within that range there are wines I will like more than others, so it makes sense to have the extras.

At the end of the day, they are my notes and a read, without explanation should make it clear what I mean and that 60 is a very good score in my system. Just because we have been accustomed to 90+ only doesnt mean that it is so hard to comprehend a different system: they are just different and shows how subjective wine is. At the end of the day they are my notes and I just enjoy sharing; I don't expect or need people to understand.