
Wine-tasting: it's junk science - miles
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis
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chillacy
> Some of the judges were far worse, others better – with around one in 10
> varying their scores by just plus or minus two... A wine deemed to be a good
> 90 would be rated as an acceptable 86 by the same judge minutes later and
> then an excellent 94.

Plus or minus 5/100 isn't bad at all for anything requiring human judgement.
Its certainly within what I'd expect ratings to swing for judged olympic
competitions like figure skating.

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wodenokoto
Not really, when there is only 8 points between "acceptable" and "excellent".
In this case, 5 points here and there makes a huge difference.

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chillacy
Perhaps that's a problem with how the scores are interpreted. Imo they should
ideally not have that many grades, perhaps only 1-5 or 1-10. Or if they do,
they should be a 92 +/\- 5

Like I mentioned, judged olympic competitions typically come out pretty close
as well, and people argue all the time about the judge's decisions too. But
its not as bad because the scale runs from 1-10.

Another example would be essay grading, though I don't know exactly how much
that deviates. The SAT essay section even has guidelines on how to rate essays
and what to do if the two human grader's ratings disagree too much.

Anything judged by humans is going to be subject to this kind of thing.

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dharmon
Surprise surprise, taste is subjective.

The byline is misleading, wine experts most certainly can distinguish wines by
grape, region, and even vintage with remarkable accuracy, they just don't
grade them consistently.

Here's my tip for drinking good wine on the cheap. Buy the Trader Joe's label.
Not two buck chuck, but the ones called "Trader Joe's Reserve", "VINTJS", and
the like (they have several variations).

I buy a bottle when they have a new one (usually in the flyer they send out),
usually for $8-15, and if I like it, buy a case or so. Better hit rate for me
than Wine Spectator scores or whatever.

Not sure how they source the wines, but the consistency is pretty good.

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gumby
It's simply entertainment and business, just like the Oscars. Does anyone
seriously think otherwise? And would they care? People seem to take the
"oscars" seriously.

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ap22213
For me, 'expert' wine recommendations are rarely useful. But, crowdsourced
reviews have been remarkably consistent. A vintage with a mean score of 4.1 of
5 (over, say, 100 reviews) is almost always better than a wine with a mean
score of 3.4. But, it's still subjective. For instance, I like Zinfandels and
Petite Sirahs, so reviews of Pinot Noirs are less useful to me.

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convolvatron
hey don't knock it. sure its subjective. but a nice wine is a rare pleasure.

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davidgerard
(2013)

