Dr. Ines Valdespino-Marlowe

Biography

Dr. Ines Valdespino-Marlowe directs the Institution’s Consumer Palate Research programme, a longitudinal study of what the public actually thinks of wine, as distinct from what it says when a waiter is watching. She is the originator of the Candour Gradient, a measure of the distance between a stated opinion and a private one, and has personally conducted more than 3,000 interviews in restaurants, airport lounges and, on one occasion, a lift.

She came to the Institution from the Valmere Institute of Sensory Metrics, where she led the first large-scale study of the Polite Sip. Her research has shown, across 41 territories, that 63.2 per cent of consumers describe a wine as “interesting” when they mean nothing at all. She is widely regarded as the most approachable executive at the Institution, a distinction she accepts with good humour and a clipboard.

Career history

• 2015–present
  Director of Consumer Palate ResearchThe Shit Wine Guide
• 2008–2015
  Head of Public Palate StudiesValmere Institute of Sensory Metrics
• 2003–2008
  Senior Field ResearcherFederation of Concerned Sommeliers
• 1998–2003
  Research FellowUniversity of Northern Ashmere
• 1996–1998
  Interviewer, Restaurant DivisionCorkwright Advisory Partners

Personal philosophy

The public palate is never wrong; it is merely early.

Professional achievements

• Created the Candour Gradient and the Consumer Palate Confidence Quotient
• Completed 3,000+ field interviews across 41 territories
• Established that 63.2 per cent of consumers say “interesting” to mean nothing

Industry contributions

• Principal investigator of the annual Consumer Palate Survey
• Co-designer of the Overall Disappointment Index’s consumer module
• Mentor to the Institution’s field researchers

Read the author’s work in the library

• Vintage 2023: A Qualified Optimism (Vintage Analysis)