Gang of Pour - Brad Baker's Tasting Notes

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Brad Baker resides in Sterling Heights, Michigan along with his wife, Michelle, their 2 cats Jake and Kelly, and a few too many bottles of Champagne. He grew up on Australian Shiraz and California sparklers, but it was a bottle of Krug Grand Cuvee that began his quick descent into Champagne and sparkling wine OCD.

Although Brad will drink anything, anytime, anyplace, he prefers his wine with a few bubbles in it. Champagne and sparkling wine seem to bring a smile to everyone’s faces. Those little bubbles make you want to stop sitting around, get up, and have a little fun. Champagne makes you… unstill. As such, unstill is focused on Champagne and sparkling wines from around the world. So pour yourself a glass of bubbly (a requirement for this page), take a gander, and let us know your thoughts.

Scoring System Explained:

My scoring system is normally given in a range because I think well cared for bottles vary by a point or two based on how the wine was served, your mood, or just plain natural variation.

I score wines based on my pleasure drinking them today and sometimes will give a second score, if I think time will not only change the wine, but improve it.

My basic range is:
A+ (97-100 pts)
A (93-96 pts)
A- (90-92 pts)
B+ (87-89 pts)
B (83-86 pts)
B- (80-82 pts)
C+ (77-79 pts)
C (73-76 pts)
C- (70-72 pts)
D+ (67-69 pts)
D (63-66 pts)
D- (60-62 pts)
F (below 59 pts)

I also use qualifiers for each range like weak, low, strong, high, and solid.

Solid would mean a wine that is towards the upper end of a grade range. So a Solid B would be ~85-86 pts.
High/Strong would mean that a wine is almost the next grade range higher, but not quite. It kind of mixes two grade ranges. So a High/Strong B would be ~85-87 pts.
Weak/Low would meant that a wine barely made it into the next grade range. It also mixes a bit of two grade ranges. So a Weak/Low B would be ~82-84 pts.
A B- would be 80-82 pts. A weak B- would be 79-81 pts.

As mentioned above, a wine may sometime cross grade ranges. For example, a High B+ wine will score 88-90 pts. How can a 90 pt wine still be a B+? Well, in my opinion, most of the bottles will be in the 88-89 point range, but an occasional bottle may be firing on all cylinders and sneak into the A- range with 90 pts. Hence, a B+ wine can sneak into the 90 pt range, but it won't happen often and you shouldn't count on it.

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