The Nirvino Rating System

Each wine in our database is assigned a Nirvino Rating. The Nirvino Rating is a normalized and weighted average of all of the critic scores for a particular bottle of wine. On any given wine page, individual scores and taglines are displayed for each critic's review. The overall Nirvino Rating is displayed at the top of the page under wine's bottle image.

The Nirvino Rating ranges from 1-5 stars, including half stars. A higher number of stars indicates a better overall review, and a lower number of stars indicates a less favorable review from the critics.

Our rating is "normalized" in the sense that we convert all individual critic scores to the 100 point scale. For example, if a critic scores a wine as "B+", that translates to a score of 87 points. Normalization allows us to integrate any type of score, whether it's a grade, award medal, thumbs up or down, etc. Our rating is considered a weighted average because we assign more significance to some critics and publications than we do to others.

For a more in-depth explanation of our scoring system, please read the following detailed explanation:

How we calculate scores - The Full Explanation

To begin, let's choose an example bottle of wine, say 1999 Moet & Chandon Dom Perignon.

First, our staff searches for every accredited publication that has a wine review for 1999 Dom. For each review found, the critic's score and a tagline best representing the review are added to the wine page.

Second, each score for the '99 Dom is converted to a 0-100 scale. For example, a "B+" would be converted to 87 points. If a critic does not provide a score, we'll assign one based on the general impression given by the review.

Third, the individual 1999 Dom Perignon scores are weighted based on the importance of the critic and then averaged into one overall score, The Nirvino Rating. A Nirvino Rating can include up to any of over 300 wine critics from our list of publications.

Finally, the overall 100 point score is converted to a 1-5 star (with half stars) rating scale. Conversion tables are based on calculations our statisticians have done on the frequency and variance of wine scores from major publications.

Now, we've got one simple, straightforward Nirvino Rating for the bottle of 1999 Dom Perignon. This rating is a good indication as to how the critics felt about the wine. The more the critics liked the '99, the higher the score, and visa versa.

Why does Nirvino use a five star scale?

There's a general frustration among wine drinkers, who feel that some scoring systems such as thumbs up or down are too general while others systems such as 100 points are too complicated or too skewed in one direction. The Nirvino Rating is a happy medium. It has it's roots in the more accurate and detailed hundred point system but is converted and displayed as the more simple and easy-to-use 5 star system. In addition, the 5 star scale is a universal scoring system used to rate most types of products and services.

Why is the score weighted?

Some critics consistently write more insightful reviews than others and have more prestige and cachet in the industry than others. To reflect this fact, we have assigned a weight to each critic. In other words, better critics get counted more than others.

What's the conversion table for the scores?

Here's a table with our conversion breakdown:

Are user ratings included in the calculations?

Yes. Here's how it works: Let's say 50 users rated the bottle of 1999 Dom Perignon mentioned previously. First, we average all those ratings into 1 score, let's say it comes out to be 4.0 stars. Second, we weight this overall "User Score" downwards to give it less weight than any given critic score. Finally, we average the User Score into the Nirvino Rating with the other critic scores. In other words, "Nirvino Users" are considered to be 1 single wine critic.

How does Nirvino handle different ratings scales?

We convert all critics' scores to a 100 point scale. For example, if a critic uses a letter grade scale, an A represents 100, and an F corresponds to zero, with the other letters falling somewhere in between. Once again, our conversion tables are based on statistical data garnered from hundreds of thousands of critic reviews. For example, here's the conversion table for letter grades:

Why do I get a login page when I click on some of the reviews?

Nirvino does not include entire reviews on a wine page. Instead, we provide a score, a "teaser" tagline, and a link to the publication's website where the full review is hosted. Some of these websites may charge a subscription fee or require login in order to access the contents. We provide a link to these reviews as a service to our users who are subscribers of those site or who may be interested in subscribing. Nirvino does make any money from any of these sites, nor do we ever charge for use of any of our content.

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