Results

Demographic

Out of the 33 valid survey responses, 90.91% of participants fall within the 18 to 21 age bracket, implying potential limited familiarity with wine, particularly in terms of tasting experience, due to age restrictions. The remaining ~9% of participants fall between the ages of 22 and 25. When asked to describe their level of knowledge about wine, 93.94% of participants gave a response between 1 and 3 on a 5-point Likert scale.

How People View Wine Ratings

Regarding participants’ perception of current rating systems, there was general positivity toward their influence and reliability, even though 78.13% of them said they had never heard of some of the most well-known rating systems and over half said they rarely used any rating when choosing a wine.

What is Influencing Your Wine Choice?

When queried about their most preferred and favorite rating systems, participants exhibited a pronounced inclination towards widely adopted ones. Specifically, 80% expressed a preference for the 5-Star system, followed by 43.3% favoring the 100-Point Robert Parker scale. Conversely, in response to inquiries about the three most important factors influencing their wine selection, there was no evident hierarchy among the top four: recommendations from friends or acquaintances (48.5%), alcohol level (48.5%), wine description (45.5%), and price and discounts (45.5%). An additional factor, the appellation, was suggested by one participant but was not included in the survey to avoid potential confusion as it could be unfamiliar to most of our target population. Notably, critic's ratings, both numerical and word-based, emerged as the two least selected factors among the listed options, underscoring that a majority of participants do not deem ratings as pivotal in their wine selection criteria.

Do you know that...?

In an effort to gain deeper insights into how participants would engage with a rating score in real-life scenarios, a series of questions were posed to examine their views on an 80-point wine under the Robert Parker System. Surprisingly, when asked “Do you consider an 80/100-point wine to be the same as a 4/5 or a 17/21?”, only 43.33% answered  “Yes, I believe they are the same” despite the mathematical equivalence of the rating scores, all representing 80% of the full score (note: 21-point scale actually has a highest mark of 20 so 80% should be 16 but to avoid confusion 17 is used in the survey). Additionally, 26.67% believes that 4/5 refers to a higher quality of wine. 

In the assessment of an 80-point wine using a word scale, only 55.17% of the 29 respondents who selected "Average" and "Above Average" aligned with the Wine Advocate's definition. The Wine Advocate defines this range as follows: "70 - 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine. 80 - 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws" (The Wine Advocate Pte. Ltd., 2023). Moreover, 62.07% of participants were unaware that the Parker Scale commences at 50 rather than 0 on a scale of 100. Among this group, 66.67% indicated that this knowledge does changes their opinion and previous rating an 80-point wine.

Simulated Wine Selection Scenario

To examine how different rating systems might impact participants' actual wine selections, a simulated choice scenario was implemented featuring four distinct bottles of wine, each accompanied by various information.

Results revealed that Options A and C were the most frequently chosen, selected by 30.3% and 39.4% of participants, respectively, while Option D was chosen by only 3 out of 33 participants. Participants were then asked about the most and least important factors influencing their decision (specific data for each option included in the appendix):

In summary, the overall analysis indicates that price, wine ratings, and wine description were the top three factors exerting the most influence, while wine label was perceived as the least useful. To complement the simulated scenario, participants were asked, "Have you ever been influenced by wine ratings or marketing to buy a wine that you ended up not liking?" and 31% of respondents, or 9 out of 29, answered “yes”. One participant, despite indicating a "regular" frequency of consuming wine, responded with "Never tried wine rating in real-life purchase."