Rethinking the 100-Point Grading Scale
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how people give scores to whisky reviews, my own scoring included. I’ve always been an advocate of using the 100-point grading scale for whisky reviews, in part because it’s easily recognizable. As I’ve said on my Review Method and Scoring Scale page (which I’ll be revising soon as a result of this post), the 100-point scale is instantly familiar for most people. Most of us grew up going to schools where 90-100 was an A, 80-89 a B, etc. If I rate a whisky as an 85, you know I think it’s good. In theory, at least.
But it seems like the 100 point scale is not so easily recognizable in whisky circles anymore. Depending on where you go to find reviews, you may find all sorts of different 100-point scales. YouTube reviewers tend to give scores on the higher side of the 100-point scale. Reddit reviewers tend to give much lower scores (including some that are just all over the place). Whiskybase users tend to be somewhere in between the two. Bloggers like me tend to be closer to Whiskybase, but can vary significantly. A whisky that’s an 85/100 may mean something completely different to you than it does to me. And that’s a problem.
The other problem is that most reviewers are inconsistent in their scoring, particularly when using the 100-point scale. This problem most certainly applies to me, as there are several scores I’d like to go back and change by a couple of points. For instance, I graded Ben Nevis 10 year old as an 86. I graded Glenmorangie Bacalta as an 87. I like Ben Nevis 10 better than Bacalta. So why did I give Bacalta a higher score? Because I’m inconsistent. The 100-point scale seems to breed inconsistency.
More and more frequently, I find scores out of 100 to be completely meaningless to me unless they fall much higher than the reviewer’s normal range or much lower. Many reviewers use only a very small portion of the 100-points available. The same applies to my own scores, as the vast majority of my reviews have resulted in scores in the 80s, usually 85 to 89. The one exception is Ralfy, who I think may be the only person left who’s using the 100-point scale in a way that’s actually meaningful (although he too has a limited range, as he never posts reviews of whiskies that he rates under an 80). But I’m not Ralfy, and I’m not trying to be.
So to resolve these problems, I’m changing and simplifying my scoring scale. I considered a few different scales, including going to a letter based scale, but I’m ultimately settling on a 10-point scale. A 10-point scale has some of the same benefits as a 100-point scale (familiarity and range) without the drawbacks (expectations and slants toward higher scores). While it’s true that in theory a 10 point and 100 point scale should be the same—after all, 8 out of 10 is exactly the same as 80 out of 100—in reality our expectations from the two scales are different. Most people would be satisfied with a score of 8/10, while 80/100 sounds much less appealing to most.
I should also note that review scores are the least important part of a good review, and you shouldn’t take the score too seriously, regardless of the scale or system. What’s actually said about a whisky is much more useful than a number or letter grade assigned to it.
So, here is my new scoring scale:
1 = Awful
2 = Bad
3 = Flawed
4 = Meh
5 = OK, but nothing special
6 = Pretty good
7 = Good
8 = Great
9 = Amazing
10 = Nearly perfect
I will also be giving half point scores, so for instance if I grade a whisky as a 7.5, then it means I think it’s very good (but still not quite great).
My review of Little Book will be my last review using the 100-point scale—going forward everything will be based on my new 10-point scale. At some point I may go back and add 10-point scale scores to my old reviews… I haven’t decided yet. Maybe I’ll just leave comments with my updated score. Or maybe I’ll leave them as is. We’ll see. I do plan to update my Review Archive page with new scores, hopefully soon.
I have to admit, I’m really quite excited about using the new scale. Weird, I know. But the idea of being free from the inconsistencies and stigma attached to the 100-point scale is refreshing. I’ve really been enjoying writing reviews… except for the scoring part of it. With this new scale, I think I can remove the one part of reviewing whisky that gives me some heartburn.
Anyway, if you have any thoughts or questions about whisky scoring, leave a comment below or drop me a line.
Sláinte.
