Up until 2012, much of the wine world focused on a single critic, Robert Parker, for Bordeaux reviews and scores. Now the picture is more complicated. Following Parker’s retirement in 2012, more critics from more publications than ever before are making waves.
When it comes to the 2018 vintage in Bordeaux, critical opinion has been divergent. For instance, James Suckling awarded Domaine Chevalier 99-100 points, whereas Antonio Galloni scored it 94-97 points. Carmes Haut Brion was scored 98-100 by Jeff Leve (Wine Cellar Insider) but the lower barrel range of 92-94 by Roger Voss (Wine Enthusiast). Issan received 96 points from Jane Anson (Decanter) but just 92 points from Jean-Marc Quarin.
For those who have not yet found their critic of choice, deciding which wines are ‘the best’ may be a difficult task. This year, Liv-ex has attempted to simplify this process by creating an average ranking of the critics’ favourite wines: the critics’ choice ranking.
All the wines that feature in our critics scores grid have been ranked for each critic displayed on the grid. For example, Antonio Galloni’s top-scoring wines – six received 97-100 points – were all given a ranking of #1. His second-best wines – he awarded five wines 96-99 points – were given a ranking of #7 and so on.
This methodology was then extended across the 14 critics displayed on the grid. The rank given to each wine was averaged and arranged in order, with the top-ranking wine being given an overall rank of #1.
For example, Clerc Milon was ranked 71st by Antonio Galloni, 52nd by James Suckling and 51st by Lisa Perrotti-Brown. These rankings (along with those of the other critics) were then averaged to give Clerc Milon an average rank of 48.57. Once all the wines were calculated and arranged in order, Clerc Milon ranked 54th in our critics’ choice ranking.
The critics’ choice Bordeaux 2018 wines, with a ranking of 51 to 98, can be found in the table below.
The top-ranking wines will be revealed tomorrow, including the critics’ favourite wine of the vintage.
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