Comparative evaluation of malvasia wines: concordance and reliability of judgments

Judgments given by experts in wine-tasting competitions can be relevant in terms of the visible signs of quality they provide for consumers. Even though it is difficult to measure the quality of wines in absolute terms, sensorial analysis through tasting is the generally accepted way to assess it. In this paper, a statistical analysis is carried out of the results from the first competition of Malvasias of the World. The evaluations obtained according to wine type (dry or sweet), geographical location and judge are analyzed and compared. Additionally, possible differences between two Canarian varieties of malvasia (aromatic and volcanic malvasia) are analyzed. Finally, the internal consistency of two tastings using a range of statistical measures based on the judges’ scores is studied to show the degree of concordance and reliability among their wine judgments.