Expert Advice

We at Wine Direct (Sussex) want you to feel confident that you are making the right choice every time you purchase wine from us. To help you make an informed decision and know that the wine you are buying is truly exceptional, we equip you with as much expert advice and information as we can about the wines we stock. We hope that this helps you with your wine choices and encourages you to feel adventurous and to try different wines.

About the reviews

At the heart of our site are the ratings, reviews and tasting notes of some of the world's foremost wine experts and critics. Every wine featured on the winedirect.co.uk site has been independently reviewed, often by several different critics, so you can read what the experts thought of the wine before you buy.

We subscribe to all the world's major wine review sites, including Robert Parker's Wine Advocate, Antonio Galloni's Vinous, Jancis Robinson, Wine Spectator, James Suckling and Wine Enthusiast. We also subscribe to country or wine specific review sites such as James Halliday, Allen Meadow's Burghound and South Africa's John Platter among others.

You will also find reviews from country specific critics who may not be household names and, increasingly, from the wide range of wine blogs available on the web. We try hard to discriminate between meaningful reviews from informed critics and 'press release' type reviews which do little to contribute to the consumer's understanding of the wine.

We also feature consumer reviews from Cellartracker!, the world's largest consumer database of wine reviews. Where relevant or available a link to Cellartracker! reviews is provided for each wine.

The "Description" of the wine is usually taken from the winery's own or the UK agents website and frequently represents the opinions of the winemaker. Similarly the vinification notes are generally taken from the winery's website. The "Best to Drink" information is usually an average of the views expressed by different critics.

Become your own expert

Ultimately you are your own best taster and most reliable expert. The ratings on the winedirect.co.uk site are only a benchmarking tool to help you choose what you want to buy. Once you have opened the bottle, poured the wine into the glass and taken that first sip, you yourself will become the best judge of the wine.