The LUCA MARONI System: HIGH Scores for BAD Wine?

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I use this wine key: Laguiole en Aubrac Wine Key Ebony
I have used this glass in this Video: RIEDEL Veritas Champagne
I have tasted the following wines in this Video:
2021 Fantini Calalenta Merlot Rosato Italy – 5,99 €
2021 Galadino Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Italy – 3.49 €

The 100 Point Scoring System (from www.robertparker.com):
96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 – 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 – 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 – 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 – 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 – 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.

The modern 100-point wine rating system was championed by Robert Parker, who introduced it in the 1980s. Parker saw himself as a consumer advocate, who operated independently. You can say what you want about him, but I have never heard anyone make credible accusations about him being biased when reviewing wines and the wine advocate did not accept money from producers.
His rating system is now used by most wine publications and wine critics and wines are rated on a scale from 50 to 100. The wines that receive a rating above 95 generally represent the crème de la crème, the best of what this wine style has to offer.
While there are differences in taste between different critics and there are some that consistently score higher or lower – there is a consensus on what 90 or 100 points mean. However, one critic has highjacked the 100-point scale and has created his system: Luca Maroni.

Luca Maroni is an Italian wine writer who has been working in wine for a long time and developed a scoring system he calls: THE LOGISMA OF THE FRUIT-GRADE OF WINE. While most critics nowadays give scores for a wine based on their overall perception of its quality Maroni scores his wines based on the slightly weird formula of Consistency + Balance + Integrity which results in his Index of Pleasantness/Fruit-grade.

Consistency and Balance are about the perception on the palate of the wine’s concentration and the balance between sweetness and acidity, tannins, etc. Integrity describes the wine’s “purity” and fruitiness.

Each element can score between 1 and 33 points and a wine can get up to 99 points in total – but he doesn’t give 100 points because no wine can be perfect – which is in my opinion a bit of a silly argument as in this system the perfect wine then receives 99 points. I must admit that it took a while until I understood his scoring method and I am still not really sure whether I could score wines based on his system – or whether anyone can. What I am pretty sure of though, is that most consumers don’t know how this system works. And I am also pretty that his scores are not even close to reality.

I went through his last 1000 reviewed wines and exactly 33% or one-third scored above 95 points and ONLY 28 wines – 28 out of 1000– less than 3% of all wines received a score below 90 points. And now you might think: Maybe he had some amazing tastings in the last months? Nope … He is tasting way more entry-level wines than most wine critics and amongst the best-rated products are wines that I would not mind drinking but certainly not the best wines in the world.

There is quite a lot of other information on his website that I would argue with, like for example that wine does not get better with age. His scores are available for free, but he does not offer any tasting notes. Instead, he gives suggestions on when a wine like the Vecciano Rosato should be consumed- according to him as an Aperitif for a romantic dinner on a quote “Great event”, Christmas, Easter, or New Year’s Eve as a “Morning wine” or an Afternoon wine. He also suggests that this dry Rosé wine goes well with Appetizers, Meat. Desserts, Fish. And Main course – so everything basically.

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