Is it a sign of quality if a wine has been give a medal in a wine competition? That’s the question that Robert T Hodgson asked himself, and decided to investigate. His analysis, based on 4000 wines entered in 13 different Californian wine competitions, showed that, no, it’s not a reliable sign. His conclusion is based on that if a wine wins a medal in one competition it is not a reliable indication of that it is likely to wine in another competition. So, the medals seem to be given without much consistency between wine competitions. if you want to know more you can read the full article published by the American Association of Wine Economists: An Analysis of the Concordance Among 13 U.S. Wine Competitions. But the study is, we would say, based on the wrong assumption – that there is a neutral and general “scale” for the “quality” of wine. But that is not the case. Wine is a matter of taste and very subjective. On the other hand, what one can say is that if a wine has won a medal in a competition, at least someone has liked it.
