Report

Identification of the Wine The Judges' Overall Ranking: Wine E is 2019 Kistler Cuvee Natalie Russian River Valley ........ 1st place Wine G is 2022 Aubert Sonoma Coast ........ 2nd place Wine F is 2022 Nuits St George - Clos de la Marechale ........ 3rd place Wine B is 2019 Paul Hobbs Russian River Valley tied for 4th place Wine H is 2019 Peter Michael Ma Danseuse Seaview Sonoma tied for 4th place Wine D is 2022 Aloxe - Corton Les Valazieres AF Gross ........ 6th place Wine C is 2022 Four Graces Willamete ........ 7th place Wine A is 2020 Beaune Les Cents Vignes Paul Benoit ........ 8th place

The Judges' Rankings Judge Wine -> A B C D E F G H Burt 5 7 6 1 4 2 3 8 Orley 8 5 6 2 1 3 4 7 Dean 6 2 8 7 1 5 4 3 Dick 8 3 7 5 6 1 2 4 Bob 5 4 6 8 7 3 1 2 Mike 4 5 7 3 1 6 2 8 Zaki 4 5 3 6 2 7 8 1 Alan 8 5 1 7 2 6 4 3 Wine -> A B C D E F G H Group Ranking -> 8 4 7 6 1 3 2 4 Votes Against -> 48 36 44 39 24 33 28 36 (8 is the best possible, 64 is the worst)

Here is a measure of the correlation in the preferences of the judges which ranges between 1.0 (perfect correlation) and 0.0 (no correlation):

W = 0.1615

The probability that random chance could be responsible for this correlation is rather large, 0.2497. Most analysts would say that unless this probability is less than 0.1, the judges' preferences are not strongly related.

We now analyze how each taster's preferences are correlated with the group preference.
A correlation of 1.0 means that the taster's preferences are a perfect predictor of the group's preferences.
A 0.0 means no correlation, while a -1.0 means that the taster has the reverse ranking of the group. This is measured by the correlation R.

The wines were preferred by the judges in the following order. When the preferences of the judges are strong enough to permit meaningful differentiation among the wines, they are separated by -------------------- and are judged to be significantly different.

1. ........ 1st place Wine E is 2019 Kistler Cuvee Natalie Russian River Valley ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. ........ 2nd place Wine G is 2022 Aubert Sonoma Coast 3. ........ 3rd place Wine F is 2022 Nuits St George - Clos de la Marechale 4. tied for 4th place Wine B is 2019 Paul Hobbs Russian River Valley 5. tied for 4th place Wine H is 2019 Peter Michael Ma Danseuse Seaview Sonoma 6. ........ 6th place Wine D is 2022 Aloxe - Corton Les Valazieres AF Gross 7. ........ 7th place Wine C is 2022 Four Graces Willamete ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 8. ........ 8th place Wine A is 2020 Beaune Les Cents Vignes Paul Benoit

We now test whether the ranksums AS A WHOLE provide a significant ordering. The Friedman Chi-Square value is 9.042. The probability that this could happen by chance is 0.250.

We now undertake a more detailed examination of the pair-wise rank correlations that exist between pairs of judges. First, we present a table in which you can find the correlation for any pair of judges, by finding one of the names in the left hand margin and the other name on top of a column. A second table arranges these correlations in descending order and marks which is significantly positive significantly negative, or not significant. This may allow you to find clusters of judges whose rankings were particularly similar or particularly dissimilar.

Pairwise Rank Correlations

Correlations must exceed in absolute value 0.705 for significance at the 0.05 level, and must exceed 0.626 for significance at the 0.10 level.

Correlation Array for the tasting is:

Burt Orley Dean Dick Bob Mike Zaki Alan Burt 1.000 0.690 -0.310 0.238 -0.286 0.571 -0.690 -0.429 Orley 0.690 1.000 0.262 0.333 -0.381 0.619 -0.310 0.095 Dean -0.310 0.262 1.000 0.333 0.286 0.286 0.238 0.238 Dick 0.238 0.333 0.333 1.000 0.643 -0.071 -0.595 -0.071 Bob -0.286 -0.381 0.286 0.643 1.000 -0.310 -0.262 0.048 Mike 0.571 0.619 0.286 -0.071 -0.310 1.000 -0.333 -0.167 Zaki -0.690 -0.310 0.238 -0.595 -0.262 -0.333 1.000 0.500 Alan -0.429 0.095 0.238 -0.071 0.048 -0.167 0.500 1.000

Pairwise correlations in descending order

0.690 Burt and Orley Significantly positive 0.643 Dick and Bob Significantly positive 0.619 Orley and Mike Not significant 0.571 Burt and Mike Not significant 0.500 Zaki and Alan Not significant 0.333 Orley and Dick Not significant 0.333 Dean and Dick Not significant 0.286 Dean and Bob Not significant 0.286 Dean and Mike Not significant 0.262 Orley and Dean Not significant 0.238 Burt and Dick Not significant 0.238 Dean and Zaki Not significant 0.238 Dean and Alan Not significant 0.095 Orley and Alan Not significant 0.048 Bob and Alan Not significant -0.071 Dick and Mike Not significant -0.071 Dick and Alan Not significant -0.167 Mike and Alan Not significant -0.262 Bob and Zaki Not significant -0.286 Burt and Bob Not significant -0.310 Burt and Dean Not significant -0.310 Orley and Zaki Not significant -0.310 Bob and Mike Not significant -0.333 Mike and Zaki Not significant -0.381 Orley and Bob Not significant -0.429 Burt and Alan Not significant -0.595 Dick and Zaki Not significant -0.690 Burt and Zaki Significantly negative

COMMENT:

Overall this was a very Interesting tasting of Pinot Noirs from recent vintages. It also represented a comparison between recent top CA wines and French Burgundy with an Oregon Pinot Noir as a wild card. All the wines were fun and really enjoyable to drink.
At this price point $100-200 this represented the high end of CA Pinot and premier cru burgundy. In this tasting the Kistler was significantly preferred. The Beaune from 2020 was seen as statistically inferior, although it should be noted that this was the lowest cost ($71) of all the wines except the Oregon Pinot. Kistler in particular has been a top performer in a number of different tastings over the past few years. This raises the question of how well the Kistler would do versus some of the higher end Burgundy.
So far there have been 2 conclusions.
- the optimal age of these wines appears to be around 7 years.
- should alternatives such as Burgundy be compared when they are at their peak of maturity, why may be much older?

We also looked at alcohol levels and cost. Although the range of prices was between $25 and $222. The top wines were in the $160 to $180 range. Given the prevalence of warm vintages during the tasting timeframe of 2019-22 it should not be that surprising that the top 5 wines were all 13.9-14.4% with the Aubert wine that came second being a high 16.2%.
Alcohol levels did not appear to impact the tasters individual preferences.

Overall it demonstrated how enjoyable, even at a relatively young age Pinot Noir is to drink.