Wine Critic BS?

Our last two sessions on the Chinese wine market and the Kingston Family vineyard made me reflect on the stranglehold perception has on the wine industry. Specifically, I struggled with how French wines continued to capture Chinese imaginations and purse strings despite the many other great vintages the world has to offer, and the prejudice Courtney Kingston had to overcome to introduce premium Chilean wines into the US market.

During class we spoke at length about how winning over influencers like renown critics and sommeliers was key to shifting perceptions about a wine or wine region. Curious at the power these individuals wielded, I did a little research on how reliable critics really were in their judgments. The results were a little disappointing.

The most quoted study appears to be one done by statistician Robert Hodgson in 2008 on the reliability of judges at a a major US wine competition. Each panel of four judges was presented with about 30 wines in flights of four. However, some wines were presented to the panel three times, poured from the same bottle each time. The results were compiled and analysed. Around 70 judges were tested each year and the experiment was repeated over several years. Only 10 percent of judges were able to replicate their score of the same wine within a single medal group. Another 10 percent scored the same wine Bronze to Gold.

Hodgson's was just one of many studies over the years that consistently showed ordinary drinkers and experts were both poor at blind tastings. (Follow links below to read about some other studies.) However, despite these findings, it seems critics continue to hold inordinate sway over the wine industry. What does this mean for us mere mortals? Do not get me wrong. I am not a wine critic hater. In the amazingly intricate world of wine, I think they play an important role as signposts. And that's the key. At the end of the day, critics are merely guides as we embark on our individual experiential journeys. We can take some advice along the way to point us in the right direction. Yet, what ultimately matters most is which wine tastes best to us, no matter what score a critic gave, whether a bottle costs $10 or $100, or if it came from France, England or China.

Sources:
1. An Examination of Judge Reliability at Major US Wine Competition
2. Wine Reviews are Bullshit! Another Wine Blog, March 2011.
3. Wine-tasting: It's Junk Science. The Guardian, Jun 2013.
4. Wine-tasting is bullshit. Here's why. io9, August 2013.
5. Is everything we know about wine wrong? The Telegraph, April 2014.