Report

Identification of the Wine The Judges' Overall Ranking: Wine E is 2019 Occidental Cuvee Catherine ........ 1st place Wine F is 2019 Littorai Wendling Vineyard Bl ........ 2nd place Wine C is 2019 Occidental Station Vineyard ........ 3rd place Wine H is 2019 Rhys Bearwallow Porcupine Hil ........ 4th place Wine D is 2020 Hirsch Reserve Estate ........ 5th place Wine G is 2019 Ceritas Cuvee Annabelle ........ 6th place Wine B is 2019 Ceritas Occidental Vineyard ........ 7th place Wine A is 2019 Rhys Bearwallow Vineyard ........ 8th place

The Judges' Rankings Judge Wine -> A B C D E F G H Frank 5 7 1 3 8 2 4 6 Orley 7 3 1 6 2 5 4 8 Bob 5 8 4 1 7 3 6 2 Dick 4 1 2 5 3 7 8 6 Dean 2 7 5 4 3 6 8 1 Burt 8 6 7 4 2 1 3 5 Mike 8 6 4 7 1 2 5 3 Zaki 7 6 8 5 1 3 4 2 Wine -> A B C D E F G H Group Ranking -> 8 7 3 5 1 2 6 4 Votes Against -> 46 44 32 35 27 29 42 33 (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 = 0.1324

The probability that random chance could be responsible for this correlation is rather large, 0.3868. 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 Occidental Cuvee Catherine 2. ........ 2nd place Wine F is 2019 Littorai Wendling Vineyard Block E 3. ........ 3rd place Wine C is 2019 Occidental Station Vineyard 4. ........ 4th place Wine H is 2019 Rhys Bearwallow Porcupine Hill 5. ........ 5th place Wine D is 2020 Hirsch Reserve Estate 6. ........ 6th place Wine G is 2019 Ceritas Cuvee Annabelle 7. ........ 7th place Wine B is 2019 Ceritas Occidental Vineyard 8. ........ 8th place Wine A is 2019 Rhys Bearwallow Vineyard

We now test whether the ranksums AS A WHOLE provide a significant ordering. The Friedman Chi-Square value is 7.417. The probability that this could happen by chance is 0.387.

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:

Frank Orley Bob Dick Dean Burt Mike Zaki Frank 1.000 0.071 0.571 -0.286 -0.286 -0.024 -0.119 -0.476 Orley 0.071 1.000 -0.571 0.524 -0.524 0.095 0.333 -0.190 Bob 0.571 -0.571 1.000 -0.452 0.405 0.071 -0.048 0.048 Dick -0.286 0.524 -0.452 1.000 0.095 -0.548 -0.143 -0.452 Dean -0.286 -0.524 0.405 0.095 1.000 -0.286 0.048 0.214 Burt -0.024 0.095 0.071 -0.548 -0.286 1.000 0.667 0.786 Mike -0.119 0.333 -0.048 -0.143 0.048 0.667 1.000 0.714 Zaki -0.476 -0.190 0.048 -0.452 0.214 0.786 0.714 1.000

Pairwise correlations in descending order

0.786 Burt and Zaki Significantly positive 0.714 Mike and Zaki Significantly positive 0.667 Burt and Mike Significantly positive 0.571 Frank and Bob Not significant 0.524 Orley and Dick Not significant 0.405 Bob and Dean Not significant 0.333 Orley and Mike Not significant 0.214 Dean and Zaki Not significant 0.095 Orley and Burt Not significant 0.095 Dick and Dean Not significant 0.071 Frank and Orley Not significant 0.071 Bob and Burt Not significant 0.048 Bob and Zaki Not significant 0.048 Dean and Mike Not significant -0.024 Frank and Burt Not significant -0.048 Bob and Mike Not significant -0.119 Frank and Mike Not significant -0.143 Dick and Mike Not significant -0.190 Orley and Zaki Not significant -0.286 Frank and Dick Not significant -0.286 Frank and Dean Not significant -0.286 Dean and Burt Not significant -0.452 Bob and Dick Not significant -0.452 Dick and Zaki Not significant -0.476 Frank and Zaki Not significant -0.524 Orley and Dean Not significant -0.548 Dick and Burt Not significant -0.571 Orley and Bob Not significant

COMMENT:

Overall these wines were marvelous with the wines being very similar and all very good.
There was not a single wine that disappointed and they were all youthful with many years ahead of them.
The wines were poured 90 minutes before the tasting began to help them loosen up.
In comparing them with equivalent burgundies, the feeling was that at 6 years these wines were more evolved and approachable.
Although there was no significant difference between the wines, the top wine from Steve Kistler, the Occidental cuvée Catherine (13.3%) is a wine which has done well in previous tastings. Interestingly the top 2 wines were the furthest apart geographically, with the Occidental coming from Bodega Bay in the south and the Littorai (12.8%) coming from the Northern Anderson valley, even though the distance is less than 100 miles.
In all cases these wines are made in cool climate vineyard with the range of alcohol levels being between 12.6% to 13.6% which in these days of climate change is appreciably on the low side.
These wines are all from single vineyard and quantities are around 400 cases at the most, requiring purchase directly from the winery to secure them.