Should You Ever Pay More Than $2 for a

Bottle of a Wine?

Eric ShedKaren ThompsonMeredith MoranEnrique Lopez

1) How much does an individual vary in their ratings of different wines?2) Can this variation be used to determine wine quality?

Participants (N = 25) will be given four wine samples (A, B, C, D) of predetermined varying quality (cost) and asked to rank each wine on the following scale:

4 – Love it! (Great)

3 – Worth a 2nd glass (Good)

2 – Drinkable (Fair)

1 – Nasty! (Poor)

To address Q1, we will determine the mean and standard deviation for each participant’s set of four scores. These SDs will then be averaged to determine the average variability of the participants’ selectivity of wine.

To address Q2, we will use the T-score in an equation to determine the quality of the wine.

Eric Shed, Karen Thompson, Meredith Moran, Enrique Lopez

Questions, Concerns, Observations

Q1 - Considering that we are only measuring variability of preference across 4 wines, is this a large enough sample?

Q2 - We had the idea that we could somehow combine the T-score with the individual’s overall rating (For example, if one participant rated all wines the same, it would not indicate difference in quality. All 4s are not created equal) to produce a quality rating. Is this possible?!?!

Is it fair to use the relative cost of wine as a measure of its quality?

Daniel Stringer, Jason Murphy, Brian Edgar, Michelle Brown

Are people able to differentiate the taste of different types of wine?

Divide subjects into a control and experimental group. The control group will taste from two glasses of the

same wine and will be asked if one tastes better or if their tastes are of equal quality.

The experimental group will taste from two glasses of different wines and will be asked the same.

We may re-run the experiment using multiple types of wine

The researcher will then compare to see if the experimental group is able to differentiate between the wines more often than the control group.

Repeat process for cider.

Questions/Concerns

How can this process be changed to compare all four varieties of wine?

What are some different ways to analyze the data?

How is wine and cider preference correlated with self-described level of

wine expertise?

Nicky Ramos-BebanGloria Lim

Rachel KrefftJanet Lundeen

Generalizability is dependent on the parameters of the actual sample.

Method

We will have people self-rate their wine expertise on a 4-point scale 1-Novice (little to no experience drinking wine)

2-Low intermediate (can distinguish between grape varietals)

3-High intermediate (can distinguish between varietals and regions)

4-Expert (can distinguish between varietals, regions, and years)

We will have people taste each wine/cider and rate the taste on a scale of 1-4 (1 being lowest, 4 being highest)

We will create a table comparing peoples’ responses to both the expertise and taste questions and look for correlations between the two variables.

Questions/Concerns

How to define “better” wines other than by taste preferences (subjective)?

Hypothesis Variance and standard deviation of experts’

preferences will be smaller than for other groups

Research Question

How do Stanford EDUC 160 students’ preferences for red wine compare to standardized Wine Spectator Ratings?

We will compare results using standardized ratings from wine.com with EDUC 160 preferences.

Sabrina PeterNora MalloneeKevin FlynnJim Soland

Experiment

EDUC 160 students will complete a blind taste test of wines

Each student will record their preferences (on a 5 point scale) for four different characteristics (appearance, fragrance, taste while in mouth, aftertaste)

Student preferences will be averaged and compared with wine.com standard ratings, using the wine.com ratings as the mean. We will use EDUC 160 data to find the distribution of the data around the mean.

Observations

This experiment will allow us to determine the degree to which EDUC 160 students’ preferences match with standard ratings of wines.

Cheers!

Does the cost of a bottle of wine correlate with people’s enjoyment of

that wine?

Ethan Hutt

Julie Cohen

Shayna Sullivan

Matt Kloser

Methods

1. Buy and record prices for each of the several bottles of wine.

2. Conduct a blind taste test of each wine with participants.

3. Participants rate each wine on a five-point Likert scale (5=love it; 4=like it; 3=neither

like nor dislike; 2=dislike; 1=hate)4. Find the mean likeability score. Compute

SD5. Compare likeability score to price.

Questions, Interpretations

Can we record each person’s frequency of wine consumption and compare it to how likely they were to like or dislike expensive wines?

How do you compare two wines that may have the same means but different SD’s? Exactly what criteria can we use to rank the best wines?

Do you get what you pay for?

The relationship between perceived quality and price of sample red wines.

Elliott ‘pink lady’ Friedlander, Nick ‘spritzer’ Haisman, Seth ‘riesling’ Snyder, Luke ‘shiraz’ Terra, and Lambrina

‘Lambrusca’ Mileva

Experimental MethodWe will evaluate the perceived quality of each wine using the following Likert scale:

1: Very Poor (suitable for minors)

2: Poor (gas station purchase)

3: Adequate (good 4th bottle)

4: Pleasant (weekday nights)

5: Spectacular (impressing in-laws)

Tasting method:

Blind tasting of each wine assigning values according to the Likert scale.

Tasters will cleanse palate (avec sorbet) between tastings.

Scores will be noted between samples.

Absolute silence will be maintained.

*Tasters will be selected at random from the participatory population, and will then be taken out of the population for further tasting until every other member has had a turn. This will minimize the conflation of wine tastes and subsequent ratings.

Analysis:

Aggregate scores for samples will be divided by price per bottle to derive a pleasure per dollar measurement.

Limitations: These findings will be limited by the selection of only one type of wine, the sources of which might not be truly representative. Price per bottle also does not include the whole cost of production including varying standards of environmental regulations in countries of origin. To reach findings that are generalizable, we would need to use a broader and more representative sample, and take into account production, environmental, and social costs.

Questions:

Are all bottles of equal volume? Will only members of our group participate in

our sample, or the whole class? How many ounces per sample? Should each person taste wines twice? Three times? Spit or swallow? Blindfolds? Berets? Candles?

Does the cost of a bottle of wine correlate with people’s enjoyment of

that wine?

Ethan Hutt

Julie Cohen

Shayna Sullivan

Matt Kloser

Methods1. Buy and record prices for each of the several bottles of wine.2. Conduct a blind taste test of each wine with participants.3. Participants rate each wine on a five-point Likert scale (5=love it; 4=like it; 3=neither like nor dislike; 2=dislike; 1=hate)4. Find the mean likeability score. Compute SD5. Compare likeability score to price.

Ethan HuttJulie CohenShayna SullivanMatt Kloser

Does the cost of a bottle of wine correlate with people’s enjoyment of that wine?

We will evaluate the perceived quality of each wine using the following Likert scale:

1: Very Poor (suitable for minors)

2: Poor (gas station purchase)

3: Adequate (good 4th bottle)

4: Pleasant (weekday nights)

5: Spectacular (impressing in-laws)

Do you get what you pay for? The relationship between perceived quality and price of sample red wines.

Elliott ‘pink lady’ Friedlander, Nick ‘spritzer’ Haisman, Seth ‘riesling’ Snyder, Luke ‘shiraz’ Terra, and Lambrina ‘Lambrusca’ Mileva

1) How much does an individual vary in their ratings of different wines?2) Can this variation be used to determine wine quality?

Participants (N = 25) will be given four wine samples (A, B, C, D) of predetermined varying quality (cost) and asked to rank each wine on the following scale:

4 – Love it! (Great)

3 – Worth a 2nd glass (Good)

2 – Drinkable (Fair)

1 – Nasty! (Poor)

To address Q1, we will determine the mean and standard deviation for each participant’s set of four scores. These SDs will then be averaged to determine the average variability of the participants’ selectivity of wine.

To address Q2, we will use the T-score in an equation to determine the quality of the wine.

Eric Shed, Karen Thompson, Meredith Moran, Enrique Lopez

peopleRed wines ciders

peopleRed wines ciders