Sonoma Wine Ratings

Wine consumers seeking valid assessments of exalted wines often look for high wine scores. But all that tells us is that a solitary wine critic lifted a glass of high-caliber Pinot Noir and moments later proclaims it to be worth 97 points.

How did that reviewer get to that conclusion? What were the parameters that led to 97 and not 98?

Surely there must be a better way to ascertain the quality of a wine,…