The Quantifier
Dr. Anselm Voskuijlen
Global Director of Wine Intelligence
“Every bottle is a data point that has not yet been asked the right question.”
Biography
Dr. Anselm Voskuijlen leads the International Wine Intelligence Division, a team of one hundred and eighteen analysts, nine statisticians and a single, highly valued librarian. He is the principal designer of the Wine Positioning Score and the originator of the Voskuijlen Smoothing, a technique by which an unpleasant data point is reconciled with its neighbours until it is no longer unpleasant.
Dr. Voskuijlen trained as a sensory statistician and spent the first decade of his career in the Halvorsen Institute’s Department of Aroma Quantification, where he produced the first longitudinal study of whether a sniff, repeated, remains the same sniff. He is renowned for the clarity of his presentations, which typically begin with the sentence “I should first caveat,” and conclude eleven caveats later with a figure to one decimal place.
Career history
- 2014–presentGlobal Director of Wine IntelligenceThe Shit Wine Guide
- 2008–2014Head of Quantitative Palate ResearchValmere Institute of Sensory Metrics
- 2003–2008Senior Fellow, Aroma QuantificationHalvorsen Institute of Sensory Sciences
- 1999–2003Research AssociateUniversity of Northern Ashmere
- 1997–1999Statistical OfficerBureau of Vintage Reconciliation
Personal philosophy
Every bottle is a data point that has not yet been asked the right question.
Professional achievements
- Designed the Wine Positioning Score now used across all Institution reporting
- Led the 22-month Longitudinal Sniff Study (n = 4,118 sniffs)
- Reduced the Division’s typical report turnaround from nine months to eight and a half
Industry contributions
- Originator of the Voskuijlen Smoothing
- Methodologist for the International Wine Quality Index
- Chair of the Index Integrity Working Group
Read the author’s work in the library
- On the Structural Ambiguity of the Mid-Priced Red (Research Article)