Give 90-Point Wines a Chance

Back in my day (a few decades ago, when the AOL chat room was the place to be), I remember when a 90-point score made heads turn, regardless of the price. If a wine got a 90, you knew you had a truly excellent bottle. In fact, if you look at our Wine Enthusiast rating scale, a 90 is considered an “Excellent,” “Highly-Recommended” wine. That rings true to me. 

But somewhere along the way, these 90-point wines have had a rough time earning the respect of consumers, even though professional reviewers assess these as excellent wines. 

Is a 90-point bottle as good in quality as a 92? No. That two point differential reflects that the higher-rated wine has more structure, balance, and potentially length than the 90-point wine. However, since we all have different tastes and preferences, that doesn’t mean that you won’t enjoy the 90-point wine more than one that receives a 92-point score. After all, personal preference is really all that matters when it comes to enjoying wine.

Somehow, the 90-point score became a positive only with a value price tag. The truth is, I have had so many 90-point wines that are truly “Excellent” and that I would “Highly Recommend,” even if they were not solely value-driven. For example, I recently sipped the 2022 Gary Farrell Russian River Chard with some friends, a wine that we discovered on one of our first trips to Sonoma, and it was showing quite elegantly. Beautiful strawberry and wild raspberry fruit laced with those pretty floral notes on the edges. The same goes for the same vintage of the Peju Napa Cab. The fruit, spice, and tannins were all in balance, and it is a wine that is delightful in its youth. Not all Napa Cabs are built that way. 

Does it mean that they were as well-structured, or as complex, as wines that receive higher scores? Nope, not at all. But a 90-point wine still has the potential to age beautifully over several years.

The one I can remember most was several years ago when I opened a 1989 Clos des Jacobins Saint-Emilion Grand Cru with my pops, a true Bordeaux lover. It had aged for some 25 years and had all of that complex dried fruit and earthiness that gives high-quality Bordeaux its classic character. I can’t tell you how it was showing in 1999 when it earned its 90-point score, but at this age it was showing significantly better than you might expect of a 90-point wine. 

More recently I had the chance to taste the 2023 vintage of one of my favorite Gavi di Gavi wines (you know, that one with the Black Label). At first sniff it was a bit guarded and not super expressive. But after about 10 minutes in the glass all of those crisp green fruits and floral notes emerged with a stony, mineral-driven finish. It felt like a wine that could certainly age beautifully, as this particular wine is known to do. An excellent expression of the Cortese grape.

Where am I going with all of this? Well, I guess my point is that ratings are a wonderful tool for gauging the quality of a bottle. But if you know a certain style of wine fits your personal preference regardless of points, that’s half the battle and worth giving it a shot. 

More Wine Basics Coverage

Published: April 15, 2026