FAQs

How are the wines rated?

We rate wines using the 100-point scale. James has used this point system for most of his career and still believes that it’s the simplest way to rate a wine. A wine rated 90 points or more is outstanding (A). A a wine rated 95 points or more (A+) is a must buy. A wine rated less than 88 points might still be worth buying but proceed with caution. We don’t recommend spending your money on anything rated lower than that. Wines rated from barrel, or unfinished wines, are rated with two point ranges such as 90-91 or 92-93.  

I want you to taste my wine. How can I send you samples?

JamesSuckling.com is always open to tasting and rating new wines; however, we are inundated with requests for tastings. Please contact us by email at [email protected], and we will do our best to answer.

Can I use your notes and scores for marketing my wine?

If you would like to be granted a temporary license to use any of the notes and scores on JamesSuckling.com for marketing and sales purposes (such as sending to your distributors, retailers or customers), you must have a Business or Corporate subscription and attribute JamesSuckling.com (JS) when quoting the content.

These subscriptions provide full access to our content and grant a temporary trademark and copyright license to use our ratings, tasting notes and information for marketing and selling wines. Both the Business and Corporate subscriptions also come with customized POS material for your wines and access to custom reports. We can also create customized graphics for you using the JamesSuckling.com logo and scores at an additional cost. Please send your requests to [email protected], including a description of the design and how it will be used. More information is available here: www.jamessuckling.com/subscriptions.

I’m looking for specific notes that I can’t find using your search engine. Where are they?

If you’re looking for any notes that James may have written during his time with Wine Spectator, they do not appear on this website. All content on JamesSuckling.com has been generated after he left the magazine in 2010.  

Why do I get the message “user not active” when I try to login?

If you registered for a free membership, your account needs to be activated before you can login. If you didn’t receive an activation email, please check your junk/spam folder. If you still can’t find the activation email, please email us for assistance.  

I’m logged into my account, but when I try to look at some of the content, it brings me to the “why subscribe” page. Why is that?

If you registered for a free membership, you will not be able to access the premium, paid content, which is designated by a gold lock. If you are a paid subscriber, are logged in, and still have trouble accessing any content, please contact us at [email protected].  

Why doesn’t the website keep me logged in?

Upon logging in, be sure to check the “remember me” box when you do so. If you access the site from a different browser/computer other than the one you used when previously logging in, the site will not remember you. Please also make sure your browser has cookies enabled in order for the “remember me” function to work properly. If your browser’s temporary internet files, cache and/or cookies are deleted, the site will not remember you.  

What if my question isn’t answered here?

Please email us at [email protected], and we will get back to you promptly.