AWS Wine Evaluation

Wine Evaluation Form Download

The AWS Wine Evaluation Form is two-sided. One side is the Wine Aroma Wheel and the other side is the Wine Evaluation Chart. AWS members may access a pdf of the form using the link below.

Download a PDF of the AWS Wine Evaluation form for printing.

Wine Evaluation

The American Wine Society uses the 20 point evaluation scale developed at the University of California at Davis. The Davis system was developed by Dr. Maynard A. Amerine, Professor of Enology at the University of California at Davis, and his staff in 1959 as a method of rating the large number of experimental wines that were being produced at the university.

The Davis system is quite straightforward. It assigns a certain number of points to each of ten categories which are then totaled to obtain the overall rating score for a given wine. In order to simplify the system for everyday use, AWS has reduced the number of categories to five: Appearance, Aroma & Bouquet, Taste & Texture, Aftertaste, and Overall Impression. Wines are rated in each category and the total dictates the rating of the wine according to the criteria below.

• 18 - 20 Extraordinary
• 15 - 17 Excellent
• 12 - 14 Good
• 9 - 11 Commercially acceptable
• 6 - 8 Deficient
• 0 - 5 Poor & Objectionable

AWS also uses the Wine Aroma Wheel developed by Prof. Ann C. Nobel, 2000 AWS Award of Merit Recipient. The Wine Aroma Wheel is an incredible tool to learn about wines and enhance one’s ability to describe the complexity of flavor in red and white wines. Initially, most people can’t recognize or describe aromas so the purpose of the wheel is to provide terms to describe wine aromas.