'Tasting enough wines' will not make one an expert, research paper shows

Intelligence researcher and psychologist Maximilian Krolo of Saarland University in Germany has released findings from an in-depth study related to intelligence and wine.

The joint research project, carried out in partnership with Professor Bates of the University of Edinburgh, explored whether someone’s level of intelligence can predict whether or not they will acquire “deep knowledge” in “a specialised domain”.

To determine this, Krolo first asked the study’s 525 participants to take a long-established intelligence assessment (ICAR), with participants tested on criteria including verbal and matrix reasoning, spatial awareness and their ability to complete number and letter sequences. From here, they were asked 68 multiple choice WSET (Level 2) exam questions to measure their existing base knowledge of wine.

Why wine?

Krolo chose wine as an example of an area in which someone may have deep specialist knowledge.

“Intelligence tests can predict how well someone will perform at school and at work. But in both school and work environments, we are either required to learn or are paid to do so, and both settings are closely associated with socioeconomic background,” said Krolo.

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