Wine review: Au Bon Climat, La Bauge Au-dessus Pinot Noir 2008 Santa Maria Valley

Our scores

Below is a rough guide to what our numbers mean. Although we are not very comfortable with scoring wines because it is so difficult to encapsulate a wine's qualities in a single score, we do realise how useful scores are for those reading and buying (and selling) in a hurry.

• 20 – Truly exceptional
• 19 – A humdinger
• 18 – A cut above superior
• 17 – Superior
• 16 – Distinguished
• 15 – Average, a perfectly nice drink with no faults but not much excitement
• 14 – Deadly dull
• 13 – Borderline faulty or unbalanced
• 12 – Faulty or unbalanced

We occasionally give a '+' or even '++' to suggest that we think (but are not 100% sure) that the wine will improve, and if a score comes with a minus attached, it means that it has a drawback, usually described in the tasting note.