Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 December 2019
In this paper we estimate how a variety of subjective measures of quality taken from the published opinions of several experts on Italian wines (Barolo and Barbaresco) are determined by the weather conditions during the relevant season, in order to assess their reliability. Since these measures of quality are only ordinal, we estimate their determinants using an ordered probit model. The method provides measures of the determinants of vintage quality ratings and suggestions on the reliability of each expert. (JEL Classifications: D12, Q11, Q13)
This is a slightly revised version of the paper presented at the 7th VDQS Conference held in Reims (France), on May 11–13, 2000. We are grateful to the conference participants for their comments and to Karl Storchmann (the editor) for publishing an otherwise difficult-to-retrieve paper. We also wish to thank Federico Spanna of Regione Piemonte for providing the weather data.