We surveyed some of the highest-earning independent tasters working today (sommeliers, buyers, blenders, cellar-door specialists, list builders) and asked them one question most of the discourse around scale refuses to sit with: how do you actually taste hundreds of lots on real paid work?
Most first-pass notes never make it to the buyer
When we asked what percentage of a first-pass note ends up in the final write-up, the dominant answer was less than 25%. For the majority of working tasters, volume is changing how a judgement gets made, not who makes it.
That's a fundamentally different story than the one dominating the headlines right now.
The mental model that explains everything
The tasters at the top of their field don't talk about scale as a shortcut. They talk about it as a colleague with a very specific role.
I use a screening pass almost like a junior taster or assistant to make my day faster. A quick sweep for faults, then talking through a tricky lot with a second palate as a sounding board. — Molly Brooks, white and sparkling buying, cellar-door programmes, list strategy
Junior taster. Sounding board. Assistant. The language is remarkably consistent across categories and income levels. These aren't people being cautious about admitting they taste at volume. They're being precise about where it earns trust, and where human judgment stays in charge.
Where scale actually lives in a blind flight
The heaviest use clusters around the earliest stages: screening, shortlisting, category mapping, research, note drafting. The divergent, exploratory phase where speed matters and the stakes of any single call are low.
I taste at volume mainly to help make different parts of my buying process more efficient. It helps with category mapping, shortlist definition, and the first read during the early stages of a book. — Diogo Ferreira, buying and list direction
The screening phase has historically eaten time without proportionally improving outcomes. Volume compresses that stage, leaving more room for the work that requires expertise: setting direction, making judgment calls, delivering a book that holds up on the palate and on the list.
The #1 benefit cited? Faster turnaround on a book, by a wide margin. The second most cited was more lots seen.
No one uses one method
Almost no taster we spoke with relies on a single pass. The real practice is a chain. For example: a screening sweep for faults, a reference bottle for calibration, a decant for reduction, a retaste at 24 hours for the finish. Each pass chosen for a specific job, assembled into a bespoke routine that fits how that taster works.
Building these routines is a skill in itself. The tasters doing it well are systems thinkers who've figured out where each pass breaks down and what to reach for next.
The second use case nobody talks about: gap-filling
Beyond screening, a quieter use case emerged repeatedly: volume handling the tasks that are time-consuming but not judgement-heavy. Fault triage. Temperature checks. Cork and closure logging. Rough note capture. Translations of grower sheets.
These are the tasks that used to swallow hours without moving the book forward. They're now handled inside the session itself, expanding what a single wine professional can cover.
The thread that runs through all of it: control
I am very specific on details, so I want to retain as much control as I possibly can. I'm always looking for a routine that helps me get readings out quickly, while still allowing me to take over at any point. — Alex Karpodinis, buying, blending, list direction, cellar-door and events
The tasters working at scale most effectively aren't the ones who trust it most. They're the ones who've thought carefully about where they don't trust it, and built their practice around that.
We use volume as an enhancement, not a replacement. It helps us cover more ground, but our expertise ensures the book stays aligned with the list and the room. — Afton Negrea, sparkling buying, list building, and events
What this means for the industry
The scale-replaces-tasters narrative gets attention because it's simple and scary. The data and the voices of the people doing this work tell a more nuanced story: volume is becoming a multiplier for tasters who already know what they're doing.
The best independents aren’t concerned with scale taking their jobs. Instead they’re asking "what can I taste now that I couldn’t before?"
How we ran this study → Methodology