The American Association of Wine Economists met for their 2nd annual conference in Portland, Oregon on August 14-16, 2008.  For the full article in Wine and Vines, the industry news Web site, please visit their Article about the conference. A quick summary of why this read is worth your time!

• Wine Spectator sting!  Two economists set up a fake restaurant in Italy, only a Web site, no actual restaurant, and submitted their wine list to the Wine Spectator for an award of excellence.  The list included wines that WS has rated poorly in the past.  For their $250 application fee they got their award of excellence along with 21 other Italian restaurants.  So would you trust WS???
• The same wine is judged differently at different competitions. If there are actually some kind of standardized criteria for wine taste, which would be the only way to actually compete on taste, then why a gold at one competition and no rating at another?
• Winemaker’s reputations elevate the perceived value of wines even if the winemaker had nothing to do with the wine.

At Wine Questers we feel that the intrinsic value of wine, not the price necessarily, has much more to do with the consumer’s value of the tasting experience than what judges decide or how wineries price their products.

We believe that when wineries compete on the total experience it is less expensive marketing for the winery and brings greater consumer satisfaction.  The existing system of magazine ratings and competition is mostly a fraud and offers little value to consumers.

- jim