In the world of wine, hierarchy is ubiquitous. The classification and rating of a bottle of wine starts as early as before any vines are grown. The hierarchical structures extend across every aspect: varietal, geographical location of vineyards, and for some types of wines—such as Champagnes—even the specific production process is weighted. While wine appreciation inherently involves subjectivity and nuance, contemporary classification systems assign stringent ranks to each bottle, signifying its quality and value. Vintage, price, and possibly a numerical ranking linked to wine appellation were the only numbers of concern to wine enthusiasts in the past. It wasn't until Robert Parker, who first applied numbers to wine using his 100-Point rating scale in the 1970s, that people started assigning scores to wines, ushering in an era where consumers increasingly prioritize and are swayed by these expert-assigned scores.

Apart from being an experience good, the influence of expert opinions on consumer wine choices is further fueled by individuals' motivations, particularly the "need of exclusiveness or the social acceptance some consumers seek to fulfill with wine". This mentality is reflected by the prevailing misconception that higher-priced wines always equate to superior quality and findings that suggest that willingness to pay for a particular wine is positively influenced by both detailed descriptions and higher ratings. The way people experience wine, combined with their aspirations, shows how rating systems that reflect expert opinions greatly influence what wines consumers choose.

Despite the unanimous acknowledgment of experts' positive influence on consumer choices, a noticeable discrepancy emerges between novice consumers and experts in interpreting wine properties. The intrinsic complexity of wine surpasses its extrinsic attributes, making wine writing and evaluation a unique and exclusive discourse community. Flavors and aromas that are so unusually particular and specific made it only possible to be described in terms often esoteric and unconventional, where “even the most straightforward description is bizarre by the standards of normal”. Novice wine lovers face a high barrier of entry due to the intricacies and complexity of the intrinsic properties of wine which contributes to the dichotomy in consumer and expert ratings and experiences.

The divergence in experience is not just between novice wine lovers and experts, it is dependent on the complexity of the information provided and the level of knowledge held by consumers. Often, the more experienced wine drinkers more adeptly decipher cues for flavors when interacting with extrinsic attributes like tasting notes, wine descriptions, and expert ratings. While less-involved consumers may find solace in the apparent simplicity offered by numerical scores as research indicates that “the scarcer their knowledge, the more receptive they [consumers] will be to a simple message”. In other words, numerical score which condense complex evaluations into digestible information, offers the appeal of brevity and simplicity for consumers with more limited knowledge.