(Wine Searcher) - Tired of repetitive tasting notes, Oliver Styles wants firm opinions rather than lists of adjectives.

Where have all the opinions gone when it comes to wine writing?

If we're honest with ourselves, there are no hundred-point scales (really a 20-point system - 80-100); there aren't 20-point scales (a five-point system - 15-20); there aren't really even five star scales (really a four-point system - the one-stars rarely get featured). There are three kinds of wines: wines you really like, wines you like and wines that are okay. For completeness' sake, we should mention that there is, obviously, a fourth category: wines you don't like, but we're playing by publishers' rules here and, for the most part, wine publications shy away from drawing attention to the latte

So, at the basic level, there are three (four if you're ready to embrace the negative) categories of wine appreciation. And while I'm aware that, several weeks ago, I was unkind toward the Joe Public reviews on the likes of Naked Wines, at least the general public manages to regularly tick the boxes of basic wine appreciation, from "absolutely loved it" to "Not a favourite. Better wines for the price... good drinking Pinot", or "this one is not great but not bad". There: all four viewpoints, albeit all on one wine. Given one can get all these for one wine, we hardly get a situation where consumer reviews are leading the way. But at least the reader got an opinion.