No they don’t, according to a study referenced in yesterday’s post over at Vinography that is bound to ripple through the wine blogosphere in a rare meme-like fashion. And I have to agree with Alder’s key point that most mainstream wine consumers do not trust online sources as much as personal recommendations from friends and wine professionals or from established wine critics.
While I’d like to take a look at the source report to analyze their methodology, I don’t have a spare £1,300 handy for the privilege. All I know is that I make buying decisions based upon blogger reviews but it’s almost exclusively from bloggers I know and have tasted the same or similar wines before with over an extended period of time (like on Twitter Taste Live, at a large tasting or the Wine Blogger’s Conference). Since there are so many wine bloggers coming into the medium, I find it difficult to calibrate my palate to most so I can imagine the average consumer casting a wary eye on the lot of us.
via Vinography
Update: Robert and Ryan across the pond at Wine Conversation has taken a closer look at the study press release. This garnered some great comments including one by an author of the report in question. Good stuff.
I don’t trust bloggers, especially if I think they get free bottles/trips/visits etc. Too much of a conflict of interest – unless they declare the interest of course – but they never do.
Clifford: Most, if not all, wine bloggers disclose samples in their reviews. Some of use have created pages giving readers all the details. So I disagree with your comment that wine bloggers never disclose these things.
Thanks for the link and mentioning the post – p.s. I generally prefer Rob, or Robert, but I guess Richard will do 😉
Sorry, ROBERT, I don’t know why I made the mistake but its corrected now.