Is it just me or is James Halliday rating tons of Aussie red wines in the 95 point range lately? Is everything he has tasted lately just great, or is he losing it?

Just curious.....

I typically find that I need to deduct a couple of points from Halliday's ratings in order to make them comparable with other critics. He is just the opposite of Tanzer (LINK).

Halliday is probably the most prolific tasters in Oz today. Does many thousands of wines a year. Having said that, it looks to me like his ratings are creeping up too. He has a liking for "clean wine" and stuff thats technically perfect, so if wines fit that category they rate well. With the improvements in winemaking more of them are doing it so that helps explains the points too. Doesn't matter if they are so clean they are completely boring they will rate well.

Cheers
Ric
torbwine.com

I used to turn my head at anything Halliday rated over 90. Nowadays, I react to scores of 94+.

TORB's explanation may indeed be correct, but I find it takes a higher Halliday score to ensure that I will like the wine as well.

I agree that the Halliday ratings I see seem high, but I still check out wines he scores above 90 points.

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