The power of 90 point wines

This is a true story, but it has to stay anonymous.

A major wine merchant that provides its own wine ratings recently offered a red wine for sale with an 89 point rating. It wasn't an expensive wine, selling for about $10. As for its quality, it was solid, but not a sock-knocker: 89 points was appropriate, and at $10, it was a great deal.

The wine didn't sell. Not a famous region, not a well-known brand. Having tasted it, I would choose it over 95% of the other $10 red wines out there, particularly the generic giant brands. But the average consumer did not.

The merchant removed the wine from sale. A few weeks later, it offered the same wine to its customers, this time with a 90 point rating.

The wine sold by the case: scores of them, in fact.

There were no other changes to the price, description, or logo, or anything else. The only thing that changed was one point in the rating.

Think about that the next time you reach for a 90-point wine to put in your shopping basket.