4 comments

• 

  Philip James

  1 year ago

  I didn't even know Decanter allowed comments. But once I did, I was glad to stumble across this article.
  
  
  We may not all have English Language doctorates from Oxford, but there's an incredible value to single reviews in many cases, and to the aggregation of such data in all cases.
  
  
  
  Here's a great review that was left by one of our 'common users' yesterday:
  
  
  
  
  
  "Great color. Crushed red fruit, cassis, violet and anise nose. Big palate with layered smooth fruit. Complex. Great fruit character on finish. Still tight, but great potential here."
  
  
  
  and here's another, much simpler, one:
  
  
  
  
  
  'Delicious.'
  
  
  
  Do I care that some random person found this wine delicious? What about if 14 out of 16 did? Or, how about 1 out of 5?
  
  
  
  At some point, even the merest snippets of data become valuable when combined with others. How useful would a football chant be with just one participant?
  
  reply
• 

  PhilipJames

  1 year ago

  I didn't even know Decanter allowed comments. But once I did, I was glad to stumble across this article.
  
  We may not all have English Language doctorates from Oxford, but there's an incredible value to single reviews in many cases, and to the aggregation of such data in all cases.
  
  Here's a great review that was left by one of our 'common users' yesterday:
  "Great color. Crushed red fruit, cassis, violet and anise nose. Big palate with layered smooth fruit. Complex. Great fruit character on finish. Still tight, but great potential here."
  
  and here's another, much simpler, one:
  'Delicious.'
  
  Do I care that some random person found this wine delicious? What about if 14 out of 16 did? Or, how about 1 out of 5?
  
  At some point, even the merest snippets of data become valuable when combined with others. How useful would a football chant be with just one participant?
  reply
• 

  Gabriella

  1 year ago

  Better yet, how effective would the Internet be without another person, expert or otherwise, to share information with?
  
  
  I agree with you Philip, and I believe we all fall victim to Gregory's mindset. For years, our education has been linear, one-sided, coming directly from the "expert". Consequently, we have tended to believe that our opinions are worthless if not validated by a professional. Personal experience meant nothing as compared to a "scholarly" opinion.
  
  
  
  I still remember the door to door salesman who sold the "official" Encyclopedia Britannica series seducing my parents with terms like "facts", "experts", "statistics", "official".
  
  
  
  Times have changed, however, as a result of the Internet, forcing us to look to our peers for knowledge, truth, motivation, encouragement, etc, rather than our "certified" experts.
  
  
  
  Therefore a wine is only as valuable as consumer who buys it. Few of us read Decanter or know who Robert Parker is; yet all of us will trust the opinion of some good friends. If our friends share their passion of a wine, we buy it and share our opinions with our circle of friends, so on and so forth.
  
  reply
• 

  Gabriella

  1 year ago

  Better yet, how effective would the Internet be without another person, expert or otherwise, to share information with?
  
  I agree with you Philip, and I believe we all fall victim to Gregory's mindset. For years, our education has been linear, one-sided, coming directly from the "expert". Consequently, we have tended to believe that our opinions are worthless if not validated by a professional. Personal experience meant nothing as compared to a "scholarly" opinion.
  
  I still remember the door to door salesman who sold the "official" Encyclopedia Britannica series seducing my parents with terms like "facts", "experts", "statistics", "official".
  
  Times have changed, however, as a result of the Internet, forcing us to look to our peers for knowledge, truth, motivation, encouragement, etc, rather than our "certified" experts.
  
  Therefore a wine is only as valuable as consumer who buys it. Few of us read Decanter or know who Robert Parker is; yet all of us will trust the opinion of some good friends. If our friends share their passion of a wine, we buy it and share our opinions with our circle of friends, so on and so forth.
  reply