Useful terminology guide

Hugh Johnson's System
Robert Parker's System
Wine Spectator System
Wine Enthusiast System
Basic Juice System

The Johnson System

It seems that America and the rest of the world will never agree about the idea of scoring wines. America is besotted with the 100 point scale devised by Robert Parker, based on the strange US school system in which 50 = 0. Arguments that taste is too various too subtle, too evanescent, too wonderful to be reduced to a pseudo-scientific set of numbers fall on deaf ears. Arguments that the accuracy implied by giving one wine a score of 87 and another 88 is a chimera, don't go much further.

America likes numbers (and so do salesmen) because they are simpler than words. When it comes to words America likes superlatives. The best joke I heard - at least I hope it was a joke - was the critic who came up with a 150-point scoring system. He argued that if 50 was no score at all, you needed 150 to reach 100. Logical, but if it catches on there will be chaos. It might just ridicule the whole unreal business to death.


Very cautiously, therefore, I offer an alternative way of registering how much you like a wine. The Johnson System reflects the enjoyment (or lack of it) that each wine offered at the time it was tasted or drunk with inescapable honesty. Here it is:

Minimum score is 1 sniff
One step up is 1 sip
2 sips = faint interest
A half glass = slight hesitation
1 glass = tolerance, even general approval

Individuals will vary in their scoring after this (they do with points systems, too). You should assume that you are drinking without compunction - without your host pressing you or the winemaker glowering at you.

Two glasses means you quite like it (or there is nothing else to drink)
Three glasses - you find it more than acceptable
Four - it tickles your fancy
One bottle means thorough satisfaction
Two, it is irresistible.

The steps grow higher now:
A full case means you are not going to miss out on this one... and so on.
The logical top score in the Johnson System is, of course, the whole vineyard.

Hugh Johnson