Imagine you’re running late to a dinner party. You’ve promised to bring wine, but you’re in the shop, staring at the shelves with only five minutes to spare.
What in the world do you pick?
Something you like? Something widely regarded as popular? A crowd-pleasing Malbec, perhaps? Or do you gamble on something more adventurous and hope your hosts and their guests are open-minded?
It’s a familiar dilemma, faced not only by tardy dinner party guests, but by many other wine buyers and retailers around the world every day.
So, we wondered: is there a scientific way to choose a bottle everyone will enjoy?
We trawled through the XWines dataset (21 million ratings, from 5 million drinkers, across 100,000 different wines) to figure out which wine styles are likely to be met with an insincere “thanks” and which will be scoring you a second invite.
To kick things off, what does normal look like?
Well, on a five point scale, an imaginary “average” wine scores a rating of 3.75 with scores distributed as follows:
Source: XWines 2023, Analysis by Corkable
So, a quarter of the guests will love it, just over half will shrug their shoulders, but two out of 10 guests would be walking away from the table with nothing nice to say about your wine picking abilities.
You might assume more popular wines to be safer bets, and sometimes that’s the case, but not always.
Take the crowd-pleasing Argentinian Malbec, for example. It racks up more ratings than almost any other and is one of the top selling styles globally.
While fewer people dislike it than our average, not many adore it either. It seems to be popular precisely because it’s inoffensive, and you’ll still have roughly two guests (18%) turning their noses up at a second glass.
Source: XWines 2023, Analysis by Corkable
Looking at wines that score above the average 3.75 doesn’t always help either.
Pick at random from the “above average” pile, and at over a quarter of the dinner parties you go to you’ll be receiving more hate than love.
You could also get seriously unlucky and pick something like a Sicilian Nero d’Avola.
I would always thought of this as a safe bet - but it turns out that while it’s loved by a passionate minority, it’s disliked by nearly one in four guests, despite having an above average score overall.
Source: XWines 2023, Analysis by Corkable
South African Chardonnay felt like another low-risk choice, but it’s more controversial than you would think. Splitting opinion down the middle with 21% haters and 20% lovers.
Source: XWines 2023, Analysis by Corkable
Overall reds are a safer bet than whites, with a lower rate of “hate” scores and a higher rate of “loves”.
Reds also have a slightly lower chance of appearing in the “most hated” list, and far higher chance of appearing on the “most loved” - with reds accounting for 80% of the most loved 50 styles.
Whatever you do though, make sure you don’t reach for a Chilean Merlot…with a dislike rate of double the average, four of our 10 guests would rather tip it into the nearest plant pot.
Source: XWines 2023, Analysis by Corkable
But looking down the “most hated” list actually reveals wine’s major appeal for a lot of us: subjectivity, nuance, variety.
I happen to love Refosco, despite a third of drinkers hating it. I’m in the small but loyal camps that champion Dolcetto and Chasselas - which apparently dissatisfy the majority. I’ve never clicked with Cabernet Franc, yet one in three drinkers love it. I would hazard a guess there are plenty of wines on the list that most drinkers hate but you love.
Every style has its audience, however small.
Which is the real lesson here - there is no “best” wine. Everyone’s tastes are different and unique.
The challenge, and fun is figuring out which you enjoy, and the most satisfying part about being a retailer, sommelier or wine loving dinner party guest is hearing positive feedback on your recommendations.
Still, if you had to bet on one wine that pleases almost everyone?
Source: XWines 2023, Analysis by Corkable
Source: XWines 2023, Analysis by Corkable
Go for a Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) from Ribera del Duero. Half of your guests are going to love it, and only 5% will be making their excuses and leaving. About as safe a bet as you’re ever likely to get.
* Corkable is a new digital platform that has developed an algorithm capable of first mapping out what your personal taste preferences are and then finding the the right bottles in your favourite retailer’s online stores to buy. Click here to find out more.
