Ep 424: Using data to answer our most important questions about wine with David Morrison, PhD, of The Wine Gourd

David Morrison is a wine analyst and writer. He is an Australian living in Sweden. He has a PhD in plant biology, and that expertise led him to explore the wineries throughout Australia, learning about the high quality wines and vineyards there. Picture: The Wine Gourd He runs a blog called The Wine Gourd (winegourd.blogspot.com), which looks at wine from a totally different perspective – one that focuses on wine data. He seeks to take a more objective look at data, and he draws logical conclusions without an agenda, which means that most of his work provides new insights in wine that others can’t or won’t provide. Much of his work has to do with finding value for money in wine, the relevance of scores, and other major topics from which faulty conclusions are often drawn from data that is easily accessible.   This is a great show, should be eye opening and if you are a person who likes hard data to back up decisions, you will become an addict to the blog as I have. Topics we cover are: How data is used and abused in the wine industry to forward agendas or opinions couched as fact Wine and health – from the article “Why we are never going to know whether wine is good for us or not”   Whether or not biodynamic wines taste better than organic wines   Critic scores and whether they have any meaning… The fundamental problem with wine scores How bad are wine scores, really? Do online wine ratings and searches actually mean anything?   Quantifying QPR (quality to price ratio) for yourself (four-part series) Photo: Canva Professional   How Global wine consumption has been declining for a long time   Wine marketing and the wrong questions asked by the industry   How Napa grapes are overpriced   The future: wine recommendation engines   If you really want to go down the rabbit hole on these and many other topics: http://winegourd.blogspot.com Sign up for his email notifications from the blog – you’ll learn more from it about shopping for wine, selecting wine, etc. than from any other source.   ___________________________________________________ Thanks to our sponsors this week:  Wine Spies uncovers incredible wines at unreal prices - on big names or boutique brands from all over the world at up to 75% off! It’s not a club and there’s no obligation to buy. They have a build-a-case option, so you can mix and match wines while enjoying free shipping on every purchase. Visit www.winespies.com/normal you’ll get $20 credit to use on your first order! Don't forget to go to the store page to see what wines I love with descriptions I have written.      If you think our podcast is worth the price of a bottle or two of wine a year, please become a member of Patreon... you'll get even more great content, live interactions and classes!  www.patreon.com/winefornormalpeople   To register for an AWESOME, LIVE WFNP class with Elizabeth go to: www.winefornormalpeople.com/classes