On linear wine score aggregators and the preservation of group preferences

Purpose: This paper aims to identify the potential conflicts that arise between the actual and the revealed preference of a panel of wine judges when the panel’s evaluation is derived by a linear aggregation of individual scores. Design/methodology/approach: A standard axiomatic social choice theoretical model is used to derive and examine the findings. Findings: The findings show that even with the application of a simple majority rule over the pairwise ranking of wines, preferences may be misrepresented by the ordinal ranking of the wine score aggregation. Originality/value: A number of wine competitions and reviews, to date, use some form of linear aggregation to represent group preferences. Furthermore, tests surrounding wine judge performance are largely dependent on some underlying true measures usually derived from a linear aggregation. The results imply that care should be taken in these regards.