While 100-point wines command a universal and unquestionably level of prestige that any hotel would be happy to have, the same cannot necessarily be said for 90 or even 95-point bottles. Understanding where to deploy a ranking can help build your restaurant revenues, but only if you proceed cautiously.

What I have noticed over the past decade is a form of scope creep whereby numeric ratings are steadily appearing within more and more wine lists or advertisements, becoming a foundational aspect of any customer presentation. The problem here is that rankings are a spice, not a main ingredient; too much can destroy a dish and too many different rating services can dilute the overall impact of the number itself.

Wine ratings first reached mass appeal through Robert Parker in the mid-1970s via his newsletter, The Wine Advocate. Using a 50 to 100-point scale, he set out to independently appraise wines and in doing so became the most popular and influential critic. As an example, his ratings became a primary driver of pricing for each newly released Bordeaux vintage.

Today, there are thousands if not millions of wines available globally. Thus, it is impossible for any one individual to evaluate a sufficient number to satisfy the expanding consumer demand. There are also many more critics, among the most popular are Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Vinous and several other well-known independents. Most use the 100-point scale established by Robert Parker. Chances are that some of the wines you are buying from your distributors have been rated, with scores generally in the range of 88 to 94 and rarely higher.

In addition to numeric ratings there are also wine competitions that issue medals, although these are often executed on a more local level with the results quite variable from event to event and from year to year. Wineries and wine merchants will often flag all this information as part of their sales pitch to help move product.

Importantly for you, what does this all mean and how do you use these ratings? First, the information has value to your customer, at least for now. It provides reassurance that the wine has been identified by some critic or organization that has deemed it better than plonk. Remember, though, that a 90 by one party does not necessarily mean the wine is inferior to a 91 by another.

Second, you can use these ratings to drum up sales and increase beverage satisfaction by adjoining them to the particular wine listed on your menu. But for transparency, always mention the name of the rating agency or critic as your source, while also verifying that the number correctly aligns with the vintage in your cellar.

Thirdly, and as an asterisk to the second point, educate your staff on the ratings and their value. Everyone on your team must understand that they are just educated opinions and that the unrated wines are not necessarily inferior.

Therein lies the double-edged sword. Does having a numeric rating beside one label detract from selling other bottles that don’t have numbers next to them? Taken to the extreme, if you were to list ratings for all wines in your cellar, would this become an issue of too much information to thus induce shopper’s paralysis?

On a macro-level, with so many different ranking systems emerging, does this weaken the power of the 100-point scale itself? I argue it does. When every magazine, website and distributor starts offering their own recommendations under Robert Parker’s general guidelines, the number itself loses value in the eyes of the customer because they don’t have time to verify the competence of the rater that bestows a 90 or 95 to a wine.

As the adage goes, it’s too much of a good thing. Hence, the best course is to use wine ratings sparingly and only convey highly trusted sources like those abovementioned. Alternatively, instead of typing any numbers into the menu, if you trust your servers you can arm them with some points for certain wines then let them disclose this information when asked by a table.

Your mission as a hotelier, F&B director or sommelier is to make the customer more comfortable with their selection, thereby enhancing the dining experience as well as getting more beverage revenues in the process. As with many other operations, though, too much data can make you lose sight of the forest for the trees.