Winetasting is BS

io9.com
Statistician and wine-lover Robert Hodgson recently analyzed a series of wine competitions in California, after "wondering how wines, such as his own, [could] win a gold medal at one competition, and 'end up in the pooper' at others." In one study, Hodgson presented blindfolded wine experts with the same wine three times in succession. Incredibly, the judges' ratings typically varied by ±4 points on a standard ratings scale running from 80 to 100. Via the Wall Street Journal:

A wine rated 91 on one tasting would often be rated an 87 or 95 on the next. Some of the judges did much worse, and only about one in 10 regularly rated the same wine within a range of ±2 points.

Mr. Hodgson also found that the judges whose ratings were most consistent in any given year landed in the middle of the pack in other years, suggesting that their consistent performance that year had simply been due to chance.

...

In 1996, research published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology concluded that wine experts cannot reliably identify more than three or four of a wine's flavor components. Most wine critics routinely report tasting six or more. The wine review excerpted in the top image for this post, for example (which is a real review, by the way – somebody actually wrote those words about a bottle of wine, in earnest) [reads in part "overall character is that of a sex loaded starlet, endowed, jaunty and erotically scented ..." --BH] lists the following components in the wine's "principle flavor" profile: "red roses, lavender, geranium, dried hibiscus flowers, cranberry raisins, currant jelly, mango with skins [Ed. note: jesus wine-swilling christ – mango with skins?], red plums, cobbler, cinnamon, star anise, blackberry bramble, whole black peppercorn," and more than a dozen other flavors that I refuse to continue listing lest my head implode.

billhoward
,, a car magazine? Motor Trend or the old Road & Track, okay, no great loss. But Car and Driver? Cold, dead fingers.

billhoward
(people think more highly of food when served in good settings)

Trotsky

billhoward
,, a car magazine? Motor Trend or the old Road & Track, okay, no great loss. But Car and Driver? Cold, dead fingers.

You've made your choice.

ugarte

Trotsky

billhoward
,, a car magazine? Motor Trend or the old Road & Track, okay, no great loss. But Car and Driver? Cold, dead fingers.

You've made your choice.

I would never read a car magazine - I've just never been that guy - but cars are engineering. Huge difference between cars on the one hand and wine and cigars on the other.