Do you follow others or are you independent in judging wine?
A study carried out by the American Association of Wine Economists, “In vino veritas” says that we are like sheep
Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini
flock of sheep
The questions is not a light one in an era where there is a democratization regarding wine opinions. In fact some of the consumers feel that the web and most of portals such as CellarTracker, where everyone can write their opinion, have brought on a revolution which deprives the great experts of authoritativeness and gives the final consumer a say in the matter. In other words bringing in a breath of objectiveness and renewal.
Maybe it is not exactly so, in fact a very interesting article published in “Wine economics” dated May 2014 entitled “In vino veritas? Social influence on ‘private’ wine evaluations at a wine social networking site” (Omer Gokcekus School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University, USA, Miles Hewstone Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK, Huseyin Cakal Department of Psychology, University of Exeter, UK) demonstrates how the CellarTracker opinions are very conform . In other words the ratings depend, still, vastly, upon the great wine critics, but mostly by the first ratings published, so it’s a paradox really, the possibility of opinions being “manoeuvred” has actually increased.
The fortune for sources such as TripAdvisor, for tourism and CellarTracker, for wine, is based on the convincement that the consumer’s opinion is
tasting
independent form any soliciting from the “usual guys” or rather those with lots of money and have great influence and consequently determine the ratings by the super experts. In truth that suspect that there a re false reviews has for some time but some doubts on TripAdvisor and I too have suffered false reviews created by an ex employee with whom I had interrupted our rapport in a rather “lively” manner.
For wine and for CellarTracker the largest source in the world regarding wines with opinions from the consumers there is also another aspect to be considered: to judge a wine is more difficult than to judge the cleanliness, the comfort, the panorama and the peacefulness of a hotel room.
But we discover that there is an ulterior danger: it’s because judging is difficult that the majority of people who write a review post something based on previous reviews, so they really are blockheads. It is sufficient that the winery organizes one or two tastings among wine lovers at the moment of a new release that the fist reviews will be favourable and that’s it. Low costs and a strong influence on the future reviews.
wine tasting
Let’s pick up again from the “Wine economics” article which analyzed the opinions published on CellarTracker during a 12 month period (2011) and regarding 106 Cabernet from Napa Valley. There were 3.227 reviews with an average rating of 89,6 out of 100. The next year the reviews were double the amount but the rating remained the same.
We might think that there is substantial quality stability in the products but the experts who have carried out this study do not think it is so. According to them the first four reviews published regarding each wine influence in a significant way the successive ratings and the more uniform they are and more the successive ones will be influenced. So the wine clan is a conformist clan and easily manoeuvrable
On the other hand as correctly observed by Rebecca Gibb on WineSearcher, the principle upon which publicity is based is exactly that, the conformist instinct in 75% of people. They follow the model that is proposed even though they are convinced that it is wrong.
Solomon Asch’s studies in the 50’s and 60’s demonstrated very clearly: many of the participants in the tests knew the exact replies to the quizzes but copied the wrong replies from people who they presumed to be the most intelligent and informed in the group.
According to the researchers of this study it is very probable that with wine the same thing happens and that the wine lovers who write about wine on CellarTracker might just take a peek at what the wine gurus, such as – Wine Spectator, Parker-Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, Tanzer-Wine International, Jancis Robinson … – have written, and at previous ratings so as not to stand out from the crowd.