Wine Nerds: Is there a difference in mean price between Napa & Sonoma

This hypothesis testing is trying to determine if there is a difference in mean Price between Napa and Sonoma.

Step 1: Define the Hypothesis

Ho: No difference in mean between Napa (1)  and Sonoma(2) scores

H1: Difference in mean between Napa (1)  and Sonoma(2) scores

Step 2 Run the One Way Anova

Step 3 Explain the results

We fail to reject the null hypothesis

The P-value for Mood’s median test is >.05 which leads us to conclude that there is no difference in the means between Napa and Sonoma scores.

Step 4 Conclusion

There is no statistical difference in the means between Napa and Sonoma scores.  The one  thing to add here is that the way our sample was for all wine with a score of 87 or more which may skew the result.  

(*)We picked One way ANOVA because both samples are normal

Wine Nerds: Is there a difference in the Price spread between Napa & Sonoma

This hypothesis testing is trying to determine if there is a difference in variance in Price between Napa and Sonoma.  In other words is the price spread different based on the region.
Step 1 Define my Hypothesis
Ho: There is no difference in the Price spread between Napa and Sonoma
H1: There is a difference in the Price spread between Napa and Sonoma

Step 2: Run the HOV test (Homogeneity of Variance) 

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Wine Nerds: Is there a Correlation between WS Scores & Prices for Napa Wines

This hypothesis testing is to try to understand if there is correlation between the average scores given by wine spectator and the average prices for wineries in Napa.

Step 1 Define my Hypothesis
Ho: There is no correlation between WS Score and Price for Napa Wines
H1: there is a correlation between WS Score and price for Napa wines

Step 2 run the regression Analysis

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Wine Nerds: Is there Correlation between WS Scores & Prices for Sonoma Wines

This hypothesis testing is to try to understand if there is correlation between the average scores given by wine spectator and the average prices for wineries in Sonoma.

Step 1: Define the Hypothesis
Ho: There is no correlation between WS score and Price for Sonoma wines
H1: there is a correlation between WS score and price for Sonoma wines

Step 2 run the regression Analysis

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Wine Nerds: Wine & Statistics

Last week I attended a statistics class I wanted to apply some of the concepts to a real life example.

After looking for a data set I remembered a spreadsheet a friend sent me before visiting Napa/Sonoma.  the spreadsheet included Wine Spectator's Scores and cost of the wines.  

The next series of article will be looking at the data in a statistical approach.  We will be looking at the correlation of Score v. Price and Price between regions, etc.  Below is the list of wineries that will included in the study.

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AZWINEGROUP to drink their way down 32 of Bill Wilson’s Wine for Newbies episode

For a while I have been trying to figure a way spice up and diversify our wine tasting and I remembered Bill Wilson’s wine podcast.   A few years ago I listened Bill’s podcast  called “Wine for Newbies”.  This podcast was a great way  to learn about everything related to wine, from serving, tasting, learning about the different grapes etc.  The podcast is no longer offered on itune but can be found here (unfortunately they are the new video one not the original audio).

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House Wine (or) How and Why To Make Your Personal Cellar Selections More Like a Restaurant Wine List: Part 4 of 4

In Part III I discussed the different wines you should own in your collection. In this the fourth and final installment I will discuss how your overall collection will look at the highpoint of the first year and how to continue building.

As you have by now purchased a complete assortment of wines for the year, or at least are planning to, your collection will look something like this.

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House Wine (or) How and Why To Make Your Personal Cellar Selections More Like a Restaurant Wine List: Part 2 of 4

In Part I, I discussed the background of why you should consider building your collection like a wine list. In this installment I will discuss the first of two issues in buying and selecting wines for your collection.

The first issue to conquer is how many bottles should I buy of a given wine?
This is more often an issue of space and cash on hand than the availability of a particular wine. Here are my recommendations and an accompanying rationale.

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House Wine (or) How and Why To Make Your Personal Cellar Selections More Like a Restaurant Wine List: Part 1 of 4

There are many types of wine buyers and drinkers: the buy and hold, the buy and drink, the you buy it I drink it!… I am the type who doesn’t buy enough of the bottles offered to me and wish I had bought more. Furthermore I won’t drink those bottles for fear they will be so amazing I will wish I had bought more at which point I would fall into deep despair.

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Comment Dites Vous Meritage?

A few years ago my friend Andy corrected me when I said Meritage the “French way" (sounding like mirage), but off course there is no such word in French.

The term was created by a group of Napa wine maker in the late 80's to describe a California Bordeaux blend.  It was  formed by joining the words Merit and heritage and is  pronounced like Heritage not like Mirage.  

Meritage [mer-i-tij].

Decanting, Aerating....

Why pour a perfectly good bottle of wine in one of those contraptions that wine stores like selling us, Not only do I need "special" glasses but I also need a decanter.

There are two reasons for using a decanter.  The first one and most common is that the wine is still young, usually “big”, tannic, high in alcohol, these wines will taste much more subtle, more elegant after an hour in a decanter where they had time to breathe, open up.  I strongly recommend decanting big wines like Zinfandel, Shiraz, Cabs, but also lighter wine like Pinots.  Most young wines get better after a little trip to the decanter.  Remember to taste the wine before it goes in and after it comes out to compare and see if you like what aerating did to the wine.

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The Russian River Experiment

On Saturday we decided to taste Pinot Noirs from the Russian River.  After spending some time at Total wine and getting some help from Peter we picked up three wines at three different price points, $20, $40, and $70, below are the results of our Saturday test.
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