About Us

How It Works

The Wine Panel is comprised of wine professionals evaluating wines as a team. Rather than judging wine by the tastes and preferences of just one expert, we evaluate wines as a panel by a diverse cross section of wine professionals. We only publish scores for wines the entire team agrees warrant a score of 90 points or more! We don’t believe in publishing anything less than flattering, so only wines we deem as 90 points or higher will receive a score.

What Does 90 Points Mean?

When considering if a wine should receive a 90 point score or better, as judges we have to have a shared understanding of what 90 points even means. At The Wine Panel, we believe 90 points equates to “above average.” So before we give a wine a final score, we first must decide as a group does a wine have the finesse and characteristics of a wine that is above average in quality.

Price Matters

We evaluate each based upon it's price, as we feel the consumer needs to understand that a $10 wine that is given 90 points is not necessarily equal to a $100 wine that scored 90 points. This distinction is critical as people want to know what to expect for the money they are asked to pay for wines.

The Process

The Wine Panel assesses wines as a team with a focus of one varietal or style at a time throughout the year. Only wines that the team unanimously agree upon are 90 point wines or better for their respective price category make it thru the gauntlet and are published.

With our diverse team and each judge having a unique perspective based on their background, experience, and preferences, it's quite a feat to have everyone agree on which wines are the very best.

All wines are tasted in a “double blind” format, meaning we do not know the winery until a score is assessed, just the varietal or category. Only once the wine is deemed above average do we then take price into consideration. Wines are organized and served blind to the Panel by Colleen Frances, our dedicated Wine Panel Coordinator, who ensures the identity of the wines remain unknown. Many of the most notable wine critics do not taste blind, but instead visit their favorite wineries and taste along with the winemaker and hand out generous scores. Because of this rarely will you see any of them disclose their process.

The team evaluates the wines in small flights of similar wines but are only judged on their individual merits. Wines that are considered “above average” move on for further assessment, those that don’t make the cut are eliminated from consideration. Wines deemed above average are then evaluated based upon their pricepoint, which ultimately effects the score. It isn’t until a final consensus is reached on a score that the winery is revealed. No more than 30 wines are evaluated per day by the Panel to ensure no judge has a fatigued palette. Many wine judgings ask judges to evaluate over 100 or more wines per day.

Wines that were “on the bubble” for a 90 point or higher score can move up the ranks with a lower pricepoint, or miss the cut and be eliminated altogether if the price is too high for the assessed quality. Often critics generously hand out high scores to promote their “brand” or to sell advertising. In contrast, The Wine Panel feels our integrity is at stake with each score that is given at 90 or more points.

The Panel

The Wine Panel tasting sessions are always made up of at least 3 out of our 4 core group of wine experts; David LeClaire, a certified sommelier & wine writer, Tracey LaPierre, a lab analyst & winemaker consultant, Christopher Gronbeck, a wine bar owner & educator, and Shelly Fitzgerald, a certified sommelier and educator, all of whom regularly also serve as wine judges. The Wine Panel team is rounded out at most tasting sessions with a rotating guest judge, usually a winemaker from a premier winery or a well-respected wine professional to keep a fresh perspective. See our profiles on our page “Our Team.”