How I rate: Several times long ago I wrote about by rating system but it's buried so far back in the blog I usually end up posting a fresh description for newer readers.  What I do is think of a 10 point rating system with 1 the lowest (meaning never drink again) and 10 being the highests (meaning the most tasty, amazing, pinnacle of wine).  Since 5 and 6 are exactly in the middle those are the numbers I use for average.  And since average means what you most likely encounter then I end up giving a 5 or 6 to the vast majority of wines I review.  It doesn't mean they're bad, they can be quite good.  It means they're average.  And then anything I give a 7 through 10 to is a wine that really stood out in some way.  So essentially if you're looking for a good wine to buy look for the scores 6 through 10 (upper average through world class).

Vale Do Bomfim, Douro Resera, 2005 (Portugal) - This is a dry red wine from the House of DOW, a large famous Port winery.  I was quite impressed actually, you get lots of good black dark fruit, it's richer than the average dry Portugese red, and it had more bouquet.  It's still far less bold than new world reds so I'm scoring it just a 6 out of 10, which is upper average, and that's one of the higher scores I've given to a Portugese red.  I'd be happy to drink this again.  Good job DOW.

Dom Martinho, Vinho Tinto, Vinho Regional Alentejano, 2005 (Portugal) - This dry red wine is made by France's Domaine Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), a famous French label which has vineyards in several famous wine regions around the world (Los Vascos, for example, is a South American property of theirs I already reviewed long ago).  So I was excited to try this and it was highly recommended in the store.  Anyway, the good news is this matches up to the Rothschild style - a smooth mild somewhat elegant dry red.  Really if I had a glass of this and a glass of Los Vascos I'm not sure I could tell which was which.  So the bad news is it's a rather mild and boring wine in my opinion and I'm sensing most of this brand's reds are pretty bland.  I actually resorted to adding a little sugar in a glass or two just to get a little more flavor out of it.  It's not bad, not at all, it's still a quality wine, but I find it a "ho hum (yawn)" sampling so I'm just scoring it 5 out of 10 for lower average.  Sorry Rothschild's.

Domaine Massamier La Mignarde, Cuvee des Oliviers Rose, 2007 (Vin de Pays des Couteaux de Peyriac, France) - After I chose this rose in one of my favorite wine stores the owner stopped to talk to me at great length about wine and in the process raved about his current selections of rose's.  So I was excited to take this home to try it, plus it has the largest percentage of Cinsault (80%) of any wine I've ever found so it satisified one of my grape quests.  Anyway, I really didn't get a lot of flavor out of it even if I let it warm up.  Sure it was fine, I've had better rose's but I'd say most were not as good as this sample, still I found it a little boring, and it had a slight touch of bitter to me.  Ironically Nancy, who is usually quick to reject wines with any bitterness, really quite liked it and drank most of the bottle.  So I don't doubt this is quality, and I'd repeated it mainly for Nancy, but in my opinion this is just a 5 out of 10 for average.