What We Stand For

Writing about wine is easy. Forming a sound judgement of a wine is not. Good wine criticism requires knowledge, experience and care. Above all, it requires the willingness to approach every wine with an open mind and to form an independent judgement of it. Only by looking closely, tasting attentively and giving each wine the time it deserves can we do justice to it.

At weinfreaks.de, we have been committed to this approach since 2001. Our aim is a wine criticism that is fair, knowledgeable, transparent and credible.

That such an approach to wine criticism cannot be taken for granted becomes clear when looking at wine journalism around the world. The old saying “he who pays the piper calls the tune” has become a widespread principle. Paid-for coverage, purchased top ratings and advertising-funded wine criticism are now found in many parts of the industry.

At weinfreaks.de, we hold ourselves to different standards. No wine producer, merchant or event organiser can pay us for a particular rating or influence us towards a particular judgement. Our independent ratings are based on tasting and on our professional assessment of the wine.

This matters just as much to wine lovers as it does to wine producers. A wine producer does not need a flattering review, but honest feedback on how their wine is actually perceived, with its strengths and, where applicable, its weaknesses. An independent judgement can be more useful than a rating that merely confirms expectations. It can offer new perspectives and help encourage further development.

For us, independence means that access to our criticism must not depend on payment. Participation in weinfreaks.de is therefore open to all wine producers, entirely free of charge. We do not ask for anything in return for listing a wine, tasting it or rating it, in any form. Nor do we place our wine descriptions and ratings behind a paywall. That is how it is, and that is how it will remain.

Credibility and transparency are fundamental to serious wine criticism. That is why we are open about how we work and welcome your questions.

At weinfreaks.de, you will find not only the rating we have given a wine, but also who tasted it, on what date and in what context. Where available, we also provide official inspection numbers in Germany, state inspection numbers in Austria or lot numbers. This is by no means a minor detail. It is not uncommon for a wine to have several bottlings that can differ in quality – sometimes considerably.

This provides a reliable basis for putting our ratings into context and comparing them with one another.

We taste all wines with the greatest possible objectivity and try to reduce subjective influences to a minimum. We give each wine the frame it needs to develop individually. Tastings in which 100 or more wines are lined up in front of a jury for “judging” do not correspond to our professional ideas of a proper and dignified handling of a cultural asset of craftsmanship.

We give each wine the attention and time it deserves. We have the patience to wait with the rating of young wines until their development has progressed so far that a serious assessment is possible.

As wine critics, we bear a responsibility. Our ratings can influence purchasing decisions and are therefore of significance both to wine lovers and to wine producers. We seek to live up to this responsibility through a careful and professional approach to our work.

Serious wine tasting requires sensory skills, specialist knowledge and experience. Not everyone who considers themselves qualified to be a wine critic possesses these prerequisites. In numerous publications – in print media as well as online – we have encountered tasting notes that raise doubts about the professional competence of their authors. This ranges from an inability to recognize and identify atypical ageing characteristics to a refusal to acknowledge an infection with Brettanomyces as a serious wine fault.

Let us be clear: Serious wine tasting is demanding work that cannot be done casually or on the side. It requires thorough preparation, the careful composition of tasting flights, concentration and attention throughout the tasting, and, not least, the ability to recognize one's own limitations and to critically question one's own judgement.

At weinfreaks.de, our tasters have extensive specialist knowledge and, in many cases, decades of experience with wine. Both are important foundations of our work, but neither makes us infallible. Even experience cannot protect us from overly subjective perceptions or occasional misjudgements. For us, credibility therefore does not arise from claiming to be infallible, but from working honestly, transparently and carefully.

Wine also lives through the conversations we have about it. Different perceptions, experiences and judgements are part of that conversation. They are compared, questioned and continually reassessed. For us, this open exchange is an important part of engaging with wine – and ultimately part of what makes wine culture what it is.