Deflategate, Data and Debate: A Football Scandal as a Learning Opportunity for Winegrowers
WARNING: This post is long, may be offensive to Patriots fans and also includes math. Sometimes little things in this world drive me unjustifiably mad. It’s like they itch at my soul. Litter left within sight of a garbage can. People wearing too much perfume in a tasting room or nice restaurant. Anything I’ve inadvertently seen or heard about on MTV in the past decade. I’m a Colts fan and so another thing that drives me really crazy is how great the Patriots have been fo
The relationship (or lack thereof) between scores, prices and appellations
Summary: Scores, prices and appellations of wines from a subset of premium wines, continue to be unpredictable. No statistical modeling I know of could accurately predict one variable from the two others. Sub-appellations produce higher scores and prices than do the California, Carneros or county-based appellations. The highest average points per dollar for 2011 Pinot Noir goes to the Santa Lucia Highlands, followed by the Central Coast. The worst average points per dollar g
AVA Appraisals: The Best Return on Investment for your Vineyard Operation
I know I haven’t posted anything for quite a while, but I’m still very busy with work. I’m thinking of writing an article about AVA appraisals for one of the trade magazines. At the same time, I’m doing a study on the interplay between appellation, price and reviewer scores for California Pinot Noir. In the meantime, though, I wanted to send out an explanation of what AVA appraisals are and why you’re leaving money on the table if you have acquired a vineyard since 1993, b