Objective vs. Subjective

Is a wine good if you like the taste, and bad if you do not? Or can wine quality be assessed independently of personal taste?

Everyone has his own ideas about what makes a good wine. These personal preferences play a role in the assessment. However, they are not the same as wine quality. A wine's origin, production, characteristics and maturation can also determine its quality. Such characteristics can be assessed, at least in part, independently of personal taste.

The difficulty arises when these different factors are conflated. Just because you do not like a wine does not mean you have to consider it a bad wine. Conversely, a wine is not automatically good simply because the taster personally enjoys it.

For a wine review to be credible, we need criteria that go beyond personal taste. Quality cannot, therefore, simply mean that a wine meets individual expectations or preferences. It must be based on characteristics that can be described, compared and assessed objectively. These include, amongst other things, the intensity and quality of the aromas, complexity, balance, structure, length and the development of a wine. Origin, vintage, style and winemaking techniques can also play a role in the assessment.

However, there is no single ideal standard for every wine. A great, high-acidity Riesling must meet different expectations to a mature Bordeaux or a natural wine with a deliberately reductive style. Objectivity therefore does not mean judging every wine according to the same rigid formula. It means evaluating a wine's specific characteristics using transparent criteria and not confusing personal preferences with quality attributes.

Nevertheless, wine tasting is always a matter of perception. Not everyone perceives smells and tastes with the same intensity. The differences between tasters can be considerable, particularly when it comes to bitterness, acidity or certain aromatic impressions. Experience, cultural background and personal habits also influence how a wine is perceived and assessed.

For this reason, even expert tasters will not necessarily assess the same wine in exactly the same way. Within a panel, a certain range of assessments emerges. These differences are not automatically a sign that someone is wrong. Rather, they can demonstrate the scope for variation in the perception of a wine.

Professional experience also plays a role. An experienced taster can recognise and classify certain characteristics in a more nuanced way than someone with less experience. Objectivity therefore does not arise simply from the fact that several people are tasting the same wine. It is also crucial how qualified and independent these assessments are.

A cultural artefact such as wine cannot be measured precisely; rather, it inherently leaves room for interpretation. Even though individual characteristics can be analysed and measured, its overall quality cannot be reduced to an objective numerical value.

This does not, of course, mean that every assessment or opinion about a wine is inherently subjective. A reference to personal taste cannot replace a professional assessment.

Anyone assessing a wine should therefore first try to separate their personal preferences from the actual quality assessment. A wine may be superbly made, complex and well-balanced, yet still not suit one’s own taste. Similarly, a wine may appeal to one's personal taste without necessarily being outstanding in terms of craftsmanship or quality. At weinfreaks.de, we therefore try to keep personal preferences out of our quality assessments as far as possible. Our guiding principle is therefore: as objective as possible, as subjective as necessary.