Archive | Current System Paradigms

Mouth bacteria: one more reason that individuals’ taste perception differs (especially from sip & spit experts)

Study shows some wine aromatics aren’t released until they meet the bacteria in our mouths “At least 700 bacterial species live in our saliva, on our teeth and on all the interior surfaces of our mouths. “For this study, sponsored by Spain’s Institute of Food Science Research in Madrid and published in the journal Food […]

Turning White Wine Into Red: Recommendation Failures & The Alchemy Of Context

“[N]o event or object is ever experienced in perfect, objective isolation. It is instead subject to our past experiences, our current mood, our expectations, and any number of incidental details—an annoying neighbor, a waiter who keeps banging your chair, a beautiful painting in your line of sight. With something like wine, all sorts of societal […]

Wine And Music Are A Lot Alike & So Are The Ways Their Recommendation Systems Fail

Wine and music: please our senses, touch our emotions, beg to be shared, are deeply engrained in how we define ourselves and, can determine how other people judge us. Because of those factors, every recommendation system in use today — including those deployed by Pandora, Spotify, Slacker and other online music sites — fail because of: […]

How Predictive Big Data Fails

Recommendations from big data predictive methods are a lot like the use of epidemiology to determine the cause of a disease: Both rely on the statistical analysis and correlation of massive amounts of data. Both are indicative that something is happening. Both can offer insights into a phenomenon. Both are easily derailed by unknown confounding […]

INCOMPATIBILITY: Profile Matching

A PERSONAL NOTE: My apologies in advance to a number of good friends and colleagues who are still trying to get wine profile systems to work. But, as you read on, my hands-on experience and further research leads me to believe that the system has inherent problems that will prevent it from reaching the potential […]

Welcome to the Vino Casino

The Casino. (The House Always Wins) Buying wine is a lot like walking into a casino. You know the odds favor the house, but the gamble is worth it to find a good bottle of wine to enjoy. THE GAMBLE IS LIKE POKER As gambles go, wine wagering is a bit like poker where luck […]