This working paper was published in 1999 based on research I started in 1995. In 2006, the Journal of Wine Economics picked it up (1:2, 2006, pp. 176-190). The abstract is all I’ll publish here. A pdf of the full working paper is below, followed by a pdf of the JWE article. This is about measuring the relationship between price and quality using medals won in tasting events as a measure of wine quality.
This paper examines price and quality in the California wine industry using medals won in nine tasting events in 1995 as indexes of quality. For each tasting event, there were four possible medals: double gold, gold, silver, and bronze. Using stagewise and ordinary least squares regression analysis, we estimate demand curves for the 807 wines in our sample treating quality as exogenous to the supply curve. We also look at results for some wine types, including chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. The results are largely as expected. Increased production of wine of a given quality will tend to lower the price: holding quality constant, the demand curve for wine slopes downward. The San Francisco Fair appears to be the best predictor of quality with the Dallas Morning News tasting second best.
Two interesting tidbits from the paper. The first is Ann Noble’s Aroma Wheel, shown in black and white. It’s far easier to look at in a color version.
Ann Noble’s Aroma Wheel (click for larger image)
(This version of the aroma wheel is from Bob Campbell’s website The Real Review.)
Second is a table summarizing the key features of each of the wine tasting events.
The Tasting Events (click for larger image)
Without further ado, here’s the paper.
