The numbers are so small that there is no way to call it statistically reliable. How many wines could have possibly been used to create this mathematical model? Certainly the total number of advertisers is quite a small number and if we look at ratings for, say, a 12 month period, we would ALWAYS see a difference between the advertised and non-advertised wines.

In other words, if you flipped a coin 100 times, and you did not get exactly 50 heads and 50 tails, would you say that God is unfairly biased towards the one you got more of?

The odds of getting exactly 50-50 are very small.

I think that a less-than-one-point difference cannot possibly be out of the statistically probably norm in this study. And if the point went the other way and advertisers were lower, we’d have never had any controversy that the magazine was intentionally low-balling advertisers to get the advertisers to spend more and buy bigger ads to make up for their poor showing in the blind tasting!

But, because this was also a coin flip probability, it happened to come up against WS and created an article about what in all mathematical probability is nothing.

I for one will continue to trust the Specator’s ratings. And, frankly a less-than1-point spread is not a huge influence over my buying habits except in that irrational case of the point between 89 and 90 (I am, after all, a human subject to those weird cognitive biases that all of us humans struggle with).

Cheers.

So, I’m growing increasingly in agreement with your statement “We should be skeptical of criticism whose publication is financially supported by the producers of the products being criticized. Wine critics should not accept advertisements from wineries. Period.”

I’ve just noticed, for example, that one of my rotating ads is adding wineries… which has me worried… so I’m trying to change it.

Cheers!

In my view, here’s what’s wrong with that response.

1. A blind tasting means that along with not knowing the producer and price, the evaluators should also not know the region or the variety. That way, they are evaluating the wine on its individual merits–and they might have to do some work to determine if the wine lives up to its claim as coming from a particular place or grape variety.

2. Perhaps, the magazine writers don’t know the producer or price when they sit down to taste, but do they know which wines have been entered into the evaluation line up? Matthews doesn’t mention that aspect. If they know which wines are in the line up, then they already have a clue to go on.

Obviously, with respect to The Wine Trials, my independent guide to wines under $15, we accept wine samples–that is the only way to review wines that are not yet on the market–but we do not accept any payments, in-kind gifts, or other accommodations of any sort from wine producers.

RG

I am a long-time consumer of all news about wine. Needless to say, I’ve consumed more than my share of great and not-so-great wine. So, I’ve been interested in how a lot of wine writers and publications seem to move in lock-step on some wines.

My question, do you ever take paid press trips to wine regions, or accept wine samples from wineries or stay at wineries when you are traveling or reporting for or about wine?

Thanks,
AB