Discover Club 92: Our Curated Selection of Highly Rated Wines
When shopping in our Wine Department, you’ve probably noticed wines with accompanying signs that feature a numbered “score.” What do these scores mean for you as the consumer? They mean that you’re about to bring home a delicious wine that received high remarks from reputable wine critics and publications.
Using the wine industry standard of a 100-point scale, many wineries will promote wines that receive a score of 90 or better. The original 100-point wine scale was pioneered by wine critic Robert Parker in the early 1980s, and it didn’t take long for the vast majority of wine ratings to transition to this 100-point scale. There are many wine critics and publications that review wines on a 100-point scale today, but at Heinen’s, we’ve narrowed our focus to only the most trusted and prestigious critics to create Club 92: a section of Heinen’s Wine Department featuring a hand-curated assortment of remarkable, limited availability wines with scores of 92 or greater from any of the following approved critics:
- Antonio Galloni/Vinous/Stephen Tanzer/Neal Martin
- Robert Parker/Wine Advocate
- Wine Spectator
- Wines and Spirits
- Wine Enthusiast
- Jancis Robinson
- Decanter Magazine
- James Suckling
- Luca Maroni
As we select the highly rated wines for our Club 92 collection, we start by looking at the score, then dig deeper. Factors such as value (not all highly rated wines are expensive!), style, region, and drinkability (is the wine ready to consume now or should it be cellared) all play a key role in our selection process. And of course, Heinen’s Wine Consultants and experts critically taste candidates to ensure they are truly exceptional and merit scores of 92 points or above.
We believe that wine scores are a very useful and effective way to purchase wine, but certainly not the only factor to consider. Before recommending you a wine from Club 92, our Wine Consultants will likely ask you if the wine will be paired with a particular meal. We ask a question like this to ensure that the wine will not only taste great, but also make for a memorable pairing experience.
We invite you to discover the impressive wines featured in Club 92 the next time you visit our Wine Department. Our selection changes rather frequently due to limited availability of particular vintages, but the great news is that there’s always something equally impressive to take its place! Each month our stores offer tastings of Club 92 features, so you can try these critically approved wines for yourself. We hope you enjoy exploring the bottles in Club 92 as much as we enjoy curating them for you!
