Wine Critics: A History of Taste, Scores and Influence
Written by - Cult Wines Team
A critic cannot improve the weather, alter a vineyard's geology or make a bottle taste better. Yet a few words and a number published after a tasting can change demand for a wine, shape its release price, and follow that bottle through the secondary market for decades. For collectors and investors, critics are difficult to ignore.
The wine critic as we understand the term is surprisingly modern. People have judged wine for thousands of years, but for most of that history the judges were merchants, physicians, landowners and brokers rather than independent reviewers. Pliny the Elder complained that Falernian had declined because growers cared more about quantity than quality, which would not sound out of place in a modern vintage report. Nearly two millennia later, Robert Parker gave those same instincts a number that could be printed on a shelf talker.
This is the full story: from ancient hierarchies and the 1855 Classification through the Judgment of Paris and the rise of the 100-point scale, to today's fragmented world of regional specialists and community ratings. Along the way, what scores actually mean, why the 100-point scale is really a ten-point scale, and how collectors and investors should read critics without outsourcing their own taste.
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News in brief
Why Africa Could Be Wine’s Biggest Growth Opportunity
As wine consumption stagnates across traditional markets in Europe and North America, Africa is emerging as a potentially overlooked source of long-term growth. A young population, expanding middle class, and increasingly sophisticated consumers in cities including Lagos, Accra and Abidjan could create significant demand. The argument is that producers who invest early in distribution, education, and local relationships may gain an advantage as Africa’s wine culture develops.
Brad Pitt’s Winery Linked to Return to Drinking
Brad Pitt’s involvement with Château Miraval has reportedly played a role in his decision to drink alcohol again after seven years of sobriety. The actor recently confirmed he now drinks wine in moderation, while sources said his close involvement with Miraval made complete abstinence increasingly difficult. The Provence winery remains at the centre of Pitt’s long-running legal dispute with former wife Angelina Jolie over her 2021 sale of her stake in the business.
Alice Griffiths Sets Guinness Record
British wine writer Alice Griffiths has now officially set a Guinness World Record after visiting 69 English vineyards in just one week. Completed during English Wine Week in June 2025 and subsequently verified by Guinness World Records, the challenge involved around 1,800 miles of travel and visits lasting approximately 20 minutes each. Griffiths undertook the feat to showcase the diversity, quality and growing tourism potential of England’s wine industry.
What we’re drinking
Veuve Clicquot, La Grande Dame 2015
Hermione Egerton-Smith, Senior Fine Wine Buyer - Cult Wines
I’ve been drinking Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame 2015 recently, and it has genuinely impressed me. This is a Champagne with real presence, generous and beautifully textured, offering layers of brioche, citrus and ripe stone fruit, all brought into balance by a vibrant acidity that keeps everything fresh and precise. It feels like a wine that has reached a wonderful stage in its evolution, approachable and expressive today, yet with the structure to continue developing over the years ahead.
One pairing I would highly recommend is truffle crisps! It might sound unconventional, but it works brilliantly. The earthy, umami-rich truffle complements the wine’s toasty complexity, while the salt and crunch contrast beautifully with its fine mousse and refreshing acidity. It’s one of those combinations that feels unexpectedly perfect.
If you’re looking for a prestige cuvée that combines elegance, character and genuine drinkability, La Grande Dame 2015 is one I’d happily recommend. It’s a Champagne that delivers on quality without feeling overly serious.
Our fine wine feature
Why Austria's Whites Get All the Applause & the Reds Deserve Better
Written by - Connor Adams, Senior Relationship Manager - Cult Wines
Austria's reputation for whites was earned the hard way. The 1985 antifreeze scandal collapsed exports from around 45 million litres to roughly 4.4 million almost overnight, and it took until 2001 to recover. Rather than rebuild the old bulk trade, Austria rewrote its wine law and repositioned itself around dry, terroir-driven quality, with Grüner Veltliner leading the way. It worked so well that in one blind tasting Jancis Robinson has written about, Austrian whites took seven of the top ten places against the best of white Burgundy.
The reds never got an equivalent moment. They are made in smaller volumes for a domestic market that drinks most of them, and they express themselves through freshness, spice and silky texture rather than the weight and tannin that palates trained on Bordeaux tend to look for first. That reads as "light" when it is actually the point. A look at why critical acclaim and quality don't always move at the same speed.
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Explore & travel
Top 10 Autumn Wine Travel Destinations
Written by - Alexa Atkinson, Senior Marketing Manager - Cult Wines
Autumn is the best time of year to be in a vineyard. The tourists have gone, the light has turned low and gold, and for a few weeks the whole business of wine stops being a visitor experience and becomes work: stained hands, tractors on the lanes at midnight, everybody far too busy to give you the rehearsed version.
Harvests keep creeping earlier, though, which quietly changes what an autumn wine trip is for. In some regions you will still catch the picking; in others you will arrive to bare vines and a warm cellar smelling of bread and crushed fruit, and find the people who made the wine finally have time to talk.
From the truffle market at Alba to auction week in Beaune, Roman chalk cellars beneath Reims and spring budburst below the snowline in Central Otago, here are ten places to spend September, October or November.
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