Wine quality and sensory assessments: do distinct local groups of wine experts differ?

ABSTRACT

This research examines to what extent and in what ways two distinct groups of wine experts differ in their assessments of the same set of wines. Whereas previous research focused on selected wine panels whose members were in some cases trained for a specific tasting, we implemented a blind wine tasting among two distinct groups of wine experts: local wine experts and influencers in two socio-culturally different locations in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia and Montreal in Quebec in Canada. Our findings suggest significant differences in how certain wine sensory attributes are evaluated. This article provides insights into how quality and taste are constructed by two distinct groups of wine experts. Our research results further shed light on how different types of wines might be perceived differently based on the locales in which they are marketed.

KEYWORDS:

• Wine experts
• blind tastings
• influencers
• sensory profiling and sensory evaluation
• taste development

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge receipt of a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, no. SSHRC 435-2017-0958 given to the first and third authors. We also acknowledge the assistance of Karine Lawrence, Scirocco Consulting, in identifying prospective members for the tasting panel in British Columbia. Nick Hamilton, a wine educator in Montreal, similarly assisted in the selection of appropriate members for the tasting panel in Montreal. We acknowledge the help of graduate students Darcen Esau, Sey See Yoon, Argiro Kliamenakis, and undergraduate student Anshuman Vasistha in the collection of data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge receipt of a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada: [Grant number SSHRC #435-2017-0958] given to the first and third authors. We also acknowledge the assistance of Karine Lawrence, Scirocco Consulting, in identifying prospective members for the tasting panel in British Columbia. Nick Hamilton, a wine educator in Montreal, similarly assisted in the selection of appropriate members for the tasting panel in Montreal. We acknowledge the help of graduate students Darcen Esau, Sey See Yoon, Argiro Kliamenakis, and undergraduate student Anshuman Vasistha in the collection of data.