The objective of this work was to identify the sensory attributes associated with the highest awards given to wines in large competitions. Data from the Mundus Vini annual wine competitions (editions) from 2014 to 2016 were used. The chemical analysis and sensory attributes were subjected to cluster analysis and logistic ridge regression to identify predictors of grand gold and gold medal awards. High ethanol levels and sugar concentrations, mainly in red wines, were observed. For both red and white wines, three clusters were identified which broadly separated grand gold from gold medal awarded wines. The discrimination of G wines was mainly due to higher scores of bitterness and green/vegetative characters in both red and white wines, and with barnyard attributes only in red wines. The prediction regression for white wines showed that the exotic fruit was the most valued sensory attribute along with the quality indicators of body and complexity. Red wines had a higher number of predictors, including positive attributes like dried fruits and spicy or negative attributes like green/vegetative and red berries. This study identified the most relevant sensory features most valued by competition jurors, which were broadly consistent with the so-called international commercial wine style.

Sensory and chemical characteristics of ‘dry’ wines awarded gold medals in an international wine competition

The modern era of wine journalism has provided abundant information about wines and a widespread use of numerical rating systems. A tiny difference, especially at the top of the distribution of ratings, may have striking consequences on wine sales and investment returns. This paper provides a general framework to obtain a consensus among tasters' opinions (reflected as numerical wine ratings) via three subsequent stages: normalization, approval and aggregation. It is inspired by contributions in political science, social choice, game theory and operations research. We apply it to the Judgement of Paris and to rank 2018 en-primeur Bordeaux wines, rated by five international experts.

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Wine Ratings: Seeking a Consensus among Tasters via Normalization, Approval, and Aggregation

Background Wine flavour has been methodically studied since the beginning of sensory research, with various purposes relating to product quality and consumer preferences. Recent advances in neuroscience have provided a deeper insight into how the perceptions elicited by flavour-active molecules are processed by the brain. In particular, the implications of the synthetic, emotional and mental imagery features of olfaction, together with the cross-modal influences on flavour perception, should be properly acknowledged in tasting methods. Scope and approach The purpose of this review is to present a critical appraisal of current tasting methods, with focus on those that are most frequently applied to assess fine wine. The remarkable ability to distinguish odours, and the emotional nature of the sense of smell, are the basis for the development of alternative tasting approaches that have lead to recent advances. The limitations of aroma and flavour descriptive analysis resulting from the synthetic nature of olfaction will be discussed and, in particular, those limitations that relate to the holistic evaluation of quality that constitutes the core of aesthetic judgements. Key findings and conclusions We argue that the conventional tasting sequence and the dominance given to descriptive analysis contributes to the subordination of the holistic nature of wine assessment. Further, expert quality judgements may be strongly biased by cognitive factors and wine preferences. Hence, the highest level of expertise may be attained when individuals are able to recognise a fine wine's synthetic properties (e.g. complexity, harmony, persistence) in association with socio-cultural aspects (e.g. origin, winemaking traditions), and then produce aesthetic judgements independently from wine enjoyment. Overall, fine wines may be defined as those characterized by superior synthetic or holistic properties that are perceived and appreciated by individuals who understand, and in the context of, their cultural meaning.

Fine wine flavour perception and appreciation: Blending neuronal processes, tasting methods and expertise

Much research shows that women and men have different taste acuities and preferences. If female and male judges tend to assign different ratings to the same wines, then the gender balances of the judge panels will bias awards. Existing research supports the null hypothesis, however, that finding is based on small sample sizes. This article presents the results for a large sample; 260 wines and 1,736 wine-score observations. Subject to the strong qualification that non-gender-related variation is material, the results affirm that female and male judges do assign about the same ratings to the same wines. The expected value of the difference in their mean ratings is zero. (JEL Classifications: A10, C00, C10, C12, D12)

Do Female and Male Judges Assign the Same Ratings to the Same Wines? Large Sample Results

The tasting methods in wines have long been used for many diversified purposes related to sensory research, wine quality, or consumer studies. Recent advancements in neuroscience have explained how sensory perception is processed justifying the adaptation of methods to meet the functions of neuronal mechanisms. In particular, the implications of the emotional nature of olfaction in wine description and appreciation have not been taken into account properly by most common tasting approaches. The purpose of the present chapter is to present a critical appraisal of current tasting methods with a focus on those most frequently applied at the winery and consumer levels. The limitations will be explained and improvements will be proposed together with an alternative method gathering emotional and sensory responses. Moreover, the issue of fine wine evaluation will be addressed regarding the synthetic properties that distinguish these wines from their international commercial counterparts. A holistic approach to wine tasting would benefit from the inputs of scholars with backgrounds in philosophy, psychology, or economy. Hopefully, mutual understanding among wine professionals, researchers, and consumers would be facilitated by changing the paradigm of wine tasting methodologies.

White wine tasting: Understanding taster responses based on flavor neuronal processing

Much literature shows that the ratings assigned by wine judges are uncertain, some authors have proposed that judges be tested, and a few wine competitions do test judges. However, no literature or competition has yet proposed a test or rating for judges based on realistic competition conditions. This article uses coefficients of multiple correlation to rate each of 54 judges who assigned ratings to 2,811 wines entered in a commercial competition. Results show that there is a strong and positive correlation between the ratings assigned by most judges to most wines. However, those correlations also show that the ratings assigned by approximately 10% of judges are indistinguishable from random assignments. Using correlations to rate the raters, a program is underway to monitor those judges and variations in competition protocol that may affect their ratings. (JEL Classifications: A10, C00, C10, C12, D12)

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/56FF800573AAB7D9B2BC3CB4E5856018/S1931436120000309a.pdf/div-class-title-rate-the-raters-a-note-on-wine-judge-consistency-div.pdf

Rate the Raters: A Note on Wine Judge Consistency

The Wines of Portugal Challenge is an annual competition among wines produced by over 1000 vintners in over 30 of the country’s wine growing regions. In 2016, judges assigned scores to over 1300 wines resulting in over 8400 wine-score observations. Analysis of that large sample yields implications about wine judges’ ratings that are difficult to detect with statistical significance in the small samples that are typical of most wine tastings. The Challenge’s frequency distribution of scores showed left skewness and local peaks just below the score thresholds for bronze, silver and gold awards. Student’s t-tests showed that there were no significant differences in scores assigned by gender-of-judge, nationality-of-judge and to wines from different regions. However, judges did assign higher scores to sweet wines than to other types of wine. While the dispersion in scores was material, p-values showed that the aggregate order of rating was very unlikely to be random and the distributions of mean scores showed that the strengths of judges’ preferences against the least-preferred wines were stronger than those in favor of the most-preferred wines. Ties between wines’ mean scores were common and could be broken by several methods including the preference probabilities implied by a Plackett-Luce model.

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The 2016 Wines of Portugal Challenge: general implications of more than 8400 wine-score observations

Ties in the averages of scores that commercial wine competitions employ to grant awards are common, and these ties make it difficult for competition officials to differentiate between wines, they erode the perception of judges’ expertise, and they can make compliance with competition rules arithmetically impossible. Responding to requests from competition officials, this article presents and evaluates six methods for breaking ties in averages of scores. Results show that using an Olympic Average, the mean excluding the highest and lowest scores, is easy to calculate, easy to communicate, effective, unbiased, and it is not inconsistent with the implications of a method of aggregating scores that is not prone to ties. (JEL Classifications: A10, C00, C10, C12, D12)

Jeffrey Bodington

Papers

Rate the Raters: A Note on Wine Judge Consistency

The 2016 Wines of Portugal Challenge: general implications of more than 8400 wine-score observations

Do Female and Male Judges Assign the Same Ratings to the Same Wines? Large Sample Results

Should Ties Be Broken in Commercial Wine Competitions? When Yes, What Method Is Practical and Defensible?