FINE WINES
There are many definitions of fine wine depending on individual understanding. There has not been an agreed definition of fine wine even from the world’s wine producers. Many people have tried to define fine wine based on quality attributes of an individual wine. Fine defines a certain degree of excellence or superiority compared to others. It also describes other terms, such as excellence, elegance or refinery of a wine. Fineness of a wine suggests tasting qualities, which define class, breed, and other qualities that differentiate that wine from the rest.
Different wine experts use a different benchmark to classify wine. Take for example Clive Coates, who classifies wine using a verbal rating of ‘good’, ‘very good’, ‘very fine’, and ‘grand vine’. Other experts like Parker use an outstanding rating with a 90+ indicating fine wine. In this benchmark, 90 acts as a cut-off point. This shows the different benchmark that each and every individual can apply to describe fineness of a wine.
Everyone palate differs so it is a matter of taste and education on flavours as with what your view of a fine wine is. Whichever classification we all use, there must be some discrete categories that we can all use to describe a fine wine and which must correlate to individual ratings. In the market, a wine can be rated as fine using aspects of vintage, the history, and even the price of the wine. A wine like Chateau Latour is highly rated by many people in the world because of its quality and history. Let us look at some aspects of wine that we can use to classify a wine as fine wine.
