Should Wines be Pre-Graded

I've been ranting quite a bit lately on the price of wines and the quality of wines. There is certainly a school of thought and I have heard if frequently that a typical wine drinker cannot tell the difference between a [insert small number] dollar bottle of wine and an [insert much larger number] bottle of wine. In fact, just the other night, I saw a patron at a restaurant order the least expensive wine on the wine list at $6 per glass (for those not familiar with pricing, that is inexpensive enough that the restaurant is likely only paying about $5 or $6 for the whole bottle. The same patron then told the person sitting next to him that "wine pricing is stupid because nobody can tell the difference between a $100 bottle and a $500 bottle."

To some extent, he is correct. Price, in and of itself, is not necessarily an indicator of quality. But, more expensive wines are higher priced for some reason and it is often a history of quality. If Charles Shaw, for example, were suddenly increased from $3.99 to $399 per bottle, they wouldn't sell a single bottle. 

All that said, any given $500 bottle in some particular vintage might not be great. But, year over year, it had better be pretty darn good, at least in the eyes of serious wine drinkers and colelctors. But, I could say the same about $100 bottles.

Suppose there was a rule that wines had to be pre-graded. In many countries, wineries are classified (see France, for example, based on the 1855 Clsssification which remains mostly intact) while in others (see Rioja, Spain), they are classified by the oak aging process. In Germany and Austria, most of the white wines for which those two countries are famous are classified largely by residual sugar. To you or me, it's highly possible that none of those factors matter (to me, some of them often do, but I have learned what I like).

Perhaps the little country of Slovenia has a better system. Situated just to the east of the far northeast corner of Italy, Slovenia was part of Yugoslavia, a former Soviet Bloc country, until Yugoslavia was broken up in 1991. It's a country with a largely temperate climate known in the wine world  primarily for white wines, as well as for Slovenian oak.

But, Slovenia also has rules around labeling of wine that are quite different from most of the rest of the world. Before a wine is shipped off to market, by law, if must be chemically analyzed, tasted, adn scored so that the quality level is accurate. Imagine that among the first growth Bordeaux. Can you imagine if there was a poor vintage of, for example, Chateau Haut Brion, and it had to be labeled as such. 

Quelle horreur!!

After all this is done, wines from Slovenia can be labeled as (and yes, I had to look these up although I recognize them when I see them) namizno vino (table wine), dezelno vino (a country wine from a specifically defined region), kakovastno vino (quality wine), or vrbunsko vino (premium wine). Both quality and premium wine must come from single regions as well. 

Imagine this grading structure elsewhere. Would it be fairer to the typical wine drinker? Would he or she care? Would you?