Are Wines from the Old and New Worlds Becoming More Similar?

Over the past two decades, have wines from the Old World (OW) and New World (NW) become more alike in taste? To find out, researchers looked at wine reviews from two time periods: 1997-2001 and 2014-2018. They examined 31 wines each year, focusing on descriptors used by seven expert critics. The goal was to see if the wines' sensory profiles had shifted. Researchers counted how often specific descriptors were used for each wine category: OW-p1, OW-p2, NW-p1, and NW-p2. They then analyzed these counts using a chi-square test and correspondence analysis (CA). Additionally, they tracked alcohol levels, assuming that changes in alcohol content might affect sensory profiles.

The CA showed that wine region was more significant than time period in how critics differentiated wines. Surprisingly, wines from the later period had higher alcohol levels but didn't taste more similar. This could be because critics' perceptions are influenced by historical differences between OW and NW wines. The findings suggest that top-down cognitive mechanisms play a role.

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