2012 2nd Half Summary - Intro

Ferry Arrival Mackinac Island 07 '64

The wines tasted during the 2nd half of 2012 are listed in two Blog Entries, REDS and WHITES+. Sequenced by rating and value (r-v) the wines tasted up to now are those I'll be selecting from over the next few weeks for holiday guests, gifts under the Tree, matching a lunch or dinner and casual sipping. Wines with the highest ratings usually disappear from LCBO shelves quickly and too often the Outlet will stock a later vintage mixed with or replacing the vintages shown here.  

Click on REDS or WHITES+  for detail listings.

The second half of 2012 Tastings included fifty wines from General listings (28 reds, 22 whites+), one hundred and three from Vintages (50 reds, 53 whites+) and nine direct from wineries or other sources (1 red, 8 whites+). In total there were 162 wines (79 reds, 66 whites and 17 other) from nine countries. Having found it worthwhile I continued to aerate wines based on a first sip. I no longer focus on Wines of the Month finding no advantage and, in a few cases, I had to return wines. Overall the wines were picked at random.

Narrowing to just the reds and whites:

Of 79 Reds there were 8 from Australia, 6 from France, 4 from Italy. The rest were from the US, Chile, Argentina and Spain. The average price of 58 reds rated 85+  was $19.62 - 26 of these reds were rated 90+.  The ratings for the 5 reds from Canada ranged from 85 to 89 and averaged $20.17.

Of 66 whites there were 28 Canadian, 9 France, 8 New Zealand, 5 Italian, 5 Chile, 5 US. The remaining few were from Argentina, Austria and South Africa. The average price of 14 wines rated 90-92 was $19.27. Another 27 were rated 85-89 and averaged $17.61 including 13 Canadian averaging $18.12. 
Repeated below is a summary of the ratings I use in this blog as well as a conversion from a 5 Star system to a 100 point system (WARS - Wine Advocate Rating System). My definition for Values can be found at the bottom of the Blog's side panel. A Tasting for any wine consists of two parts, the actual notes that provide a clue as to the characteristics of a wine for sipping or pairing with an occasion and the Rating-Value rating as to whether it's a good buy, quality and price, compared with similar wines, that  is: the What and the Why. 


96-100 Extraordinary
90 - 95 Outstanding
86 - 89 Interesting to Excellent
80 - 85 Drinkable to Enjoyable
70 - 79 Uninteresting to Simple
60 - 69 Unpleasant
50 - 59 Unacceptable

5  Stars        It’s hard to imagine better quality (94-100 points).
4 ½  Stars   Excellent quality (90-93 points).
4 Stars        Very good quality (87-89 points).
3 ½ Stars    Good quality (85-86 points).
3 Stars        Well-made wine but without distinction (82-84 points). 

Cheers, Ww