[dagw]

There are certain more 'objective' criteria used to judge wines. In fact one of the things you learn when learning to taste and judge wine is to try to separate what you like from judging if it is a well made wine.

A big one is complexity. Wines with a complex flavour profile (ie lots of different flavours) are generally judged as better than wines with a simple flavour profile. Another is length of finish. How long does a pleasant flavour linger in the mouth after swallowing. You can also judge how close the wine is to how a wine of that type is 'supposed' to taste, and how well the wine maker managed to achieve what they where trying to achieve. You might not particularly like Chianti, but you can still judge if the wine you are drinking is a really well made Chianti.