A room full of 90+ points wines

I was recently invited to a wine tasting—not of Italian wines for once—and something struck me the moment I walked into the room. Nearly every winery had at least one bottle on display with a sticker boasting “90 Points” from Parker, Wine Spectator, or Wine Advocate. Out of about 30 producers, only three or four didn’t have a bottle plastered with a score.

As I made my way from table to table, I noticed a pattern: the very first thing wineries would tell me was their score - sometimes even before introducing the wine itself. After a while, I found myself starting the conversation with, “I can see you’ve got a 90+ rated wine, but I’m here to taste your wines.” If I were choosing wines based on someone else’s scores, I wouldn’t need to attend the event - I could just order them from the office.

What was even more annoying was that in many cases, the high scores were for previous vintages, not the wines being poured on the day. This bait-and-switch approach is something I also see often in retail: bold scores splashed across the label or shelf, only to find in small print that they refer to a completely different vintage.

That day, surrounded by so many highly rated wines, I decided to do something I’d never done before: I compared my scores with the “expert” ratings. And guess what? Many of the 90+ wines didn’t even reach 80 on my personal scale, while others that had been rated lower - one in particular that had received an 85 - were, to me, outstanding.

Was I supposed to feel insecure for not agreeing with Parker or Wine Advocate? Not at all. In fact, I felt quite the opposite. It was empowering to trust my own palate, to not be swayed by labels or hype. Were my ratings right? Were theirs wrong? Probably neither. Taste is subjective. But when the gap is so large, it raises real questions about the role and influence of wine ratings.

Curious, I began asking the winemakers specific questions - about the vintage, the timing of tastings, how long the wine had been in bottle, when the score was given. I was looking for a logical explanation. But I did not found one for all the wines.

Every winery at the event was either proudly showing off a 90+ score or desperately trying to earn one. Samples were being sent out in the hopes of catching a critic’s attention, and importers were selecting wines based on those numbers. Why? Because it’s simply easier to sell a wine with a 90+ rating than one without. But if everyone’s importing and selling the same “90+ wines,” we lose the individuality, the hidden gems, the unique stories behind the bottle.

At Italyabroad.com, we don’t buy wines based on ratings. We ignore them all together. We taste every wine ourselves. We look for great wines, gems, authenticity, personality, and craftsmanship. Whether a wine has 90 points or none from an expert doesn’t matter to us—what matters is how it tastes, how it’s made, and the values of the people behind it.

If we were to follow the critics blindly, we’d all be drinking the same wines, made to a formula, chasing a number. That’s not what wine is about. Wine is about discovery, connection, and trust, and that’s why we do things differently.