HOW WE TASTE
AND SCORE WINE
Wineros publishes under a masthead rather than a byline. That means the only honest basis for trusting a score here is the process behind it — so we publish the process in full. Everything on this page is a standing commitment, not a description of an ideal.
WHO WRITES THIS
Reviews are published by the Wineros tasting panel and attributed to Wineros as an organisation, not to an individual. We would rather name a process we can stand behind than a person we would have to invent.
What that means in practice: no review here carries a personal endorsement, and no credential is claimed that cannot be checked. The scores are the output of the rubric below, applied the same way every time.
HOW BOTTLES ARE CHOSEN
Candidates come from three places: bottles that are widely available to buy in the United States, bottles that fill a gap in a buying guide we are working on, and bottles readers ask us about. We buy or source every bottle we taste.
Most candidates do not become reviews. A wine that is interesting but unavailable, or good but indistinguishable from something cheaper we already recommend, does not earn a page.
THE SCORING RUBRIC
Scores run on a 100-point scale, assessed on five criteria: typicity, balance, structure, food versatility and value at its asking price. A wine is tasted against its own category, not against every wine — a $35 Sauvignon Blanc is judged as a $35 Sauvignon Blanc.
That last band is the part worth reading twice. We do not publish negative reviews, so the absence of a wine from this site is not a verdict on it — but every wine that is here cleared the same bar.
TASTING CONDITIONS
Bottles are tasted blind: labels are covered and the taster does not know the price. Wines are assessed in a flight against others of the same style, served at the temperature we recommend on the wine's own page, in a standard tasting glass.
Where a wine needs air to show properly, it is tasted both on opening and again later, and the review says so. Every score is confirmed on a second day before it is published.
INDEPENDENCE
We accept no payment to feature a wine. Not for a review, not for a place in a guide, not for a higher score. No producer, importer or retailer has ever paid to appear on this site, and none ever will.
Wineros is funded by affiliate commission: if you buy through a link here, the retailer pays us a small percentage at no extra cost to you. That relationship is with the retailer, not the winery, and it does not change which wines we choose or what we score them. Retailer links are chosen after a wine is scored, never before.
If a producer offers payment, sponsorship or a paid placement, the answer is no and the wine stays eligible for review on its merits. Full detail is on our affiliate disclosure page.
PRICES AND UPDATES
Prices shown are the typical US retail price at the time of review, not a live quote. Wine pricing moves with vintage, allocation and retailer, so treat every figure here as a guide and check the retailer for the current number before buying.
Reviews carry the month they were tasted. When a new vintage materially changes a wine, we re-taste and publish a new review rather than quietly editing the old one.
CORRECTIONS
If something here is wrong — a price, a vintage, a blend, a region, a fact in a lesson — tell us and we will fix it. Corrections to a published review are noted on the page rather than made silently.