Archive for the ‘Rating Wine’ Category

Dec 8, 2017

Fake Wine Reviews: Peer Review Sites vs. Wine Critics

Can the wine and food world trust the conclusions of the crowd? Recently an Italian paper created a TripAdvisor profile for a fake restaurant. Then they went about submitting fake reviews. In no time, the fake restaurant was the highest rated restaurant on TripAdvisor in Italy. When the newspaper finally called TripAdvisor to tell them what they had done and to get a statement, TripAdvisor took down the profile for the restaurant along with the reviews and stated: “As the…

Jul 13, 2017

1966 Rock n Roll vs The Greatness of 2017 California Wine

In 1966 Bob Dylan Released Blonde On Blonde, the Beach Boys released Pet Sounds, and the Beatles released Revolver. It’s arguable that no three albums together had more influence on the history of Rock n Roll. And it all happened in one year. It was a seminal year for Rock n Roll and one we can look back on it and, again, make the case that it was the pinnacle of the Rock genre. I wonder if 2017 might, in…

Dec 30, 2016

The Year In Charting Wine

There are many ways to reflect on the year (2016) in wine. No doubt, those various views will be explored as the year comes to an end and as 2016 data sets of various types become available in the new year. One data set always available is Google Trends, a tool that allow us to measure relative interest in Internet search terms. By comparing search terms we can look at the relative interest in those terms over the past year….

Jul 20, 2015

Wine Competitions and the Ethical Conundrum

At a wine competition the award that every winery wants to win is the “Sweepstakes” Award. Sometimes it is called the “Chairman’s Award. In short, these awards are given to the single best red, white, rose, sparkling and dessert wine. Many red wines may get a gold or even a “double gold” award, but only one is awarded the “Sweepstakes Red” Award. Sweepstakes Awards are determined by all the judges at the competition on the basis of a vote. Throughout…

Jul 15, 2015

How To Pair Wine With Red Herring

“A rating, while striving to communicate the quality differences among wines, can’t tell you if one wine or another is better in different circumstances. In fact, a lower rated wine considered far more simple than a higher rated wine, might be a far better wine in a particular circumstance.” This is what I’ve heard for 25 years as people criticize wine ratings. The criticism is that a wine rating can’t forecast the quality of a wine in any given circumstance….