The Economics of Elegance: Tasting Profile, Ratings, and Pricing of Pinot Noir Across Wine Regions
Philippe Masset
Victor Motta
“When it’s great, Pinot Noir produces the most complex,
hedonistic and remarkably thrilling red wine in the world.”
(Robert Parker)
This paper has several objectives. The first is to define the typical profile of a Pinot Noir in terms of its olfactory and aromatic attributes and its overall structure. The second objective is to study the differences in profile between Pinot Noirs from different regions and different vintages. The third objective, closely linked to the previous one, is to identify the key elements that distinguish a Pinot Noir judged good by an expert from a great Pinot Noir, worthy of a score of 95 points or more. The fourth objective is to analyze prices to understand how the market values the different attributes associated with a Pinot Noir (origin, quality/score, profile and their interactions). This analysis will also make it possible to study the evolution of Pinot Noirs by region and to discuss their possible convergence in terms of profile and/or quality. To achieve the above objectives, this article uses data from Wine Enthusiast. Our database contains a total of 13,272 tasting notes and reviews for Pinot Noir wines from various regions and countries, including California (6,896 observations), Oregon (2,786), Burgundy (1,550), and New Zealand (509). These ratings cover wines from vintages 2010 to 2019, and were awarded by 20 international experts following tastings that took place between 2017 and 2020. Our methodology involves extracting elements from the tasting notes using natural language processing, sentiment analysis and machine learning, and analyzing the relationship between attributes and scores and prices using regression techniques.
Philippe Masset is
Victor Motta is