Losing Focus (and my #WBW70 super spanish wine!)

Has anyone read Bad Science, Ben Goldacre’s exposé of media pseudoscience? Well, he’s not the only one who can uncover flawed research methodology – I wonder what he’d think of my focus group experience.

A friend of mine recently took part in a focus group run by one of the main political parties. The main rule for participation was that the person did not vote for this party in the last election but was planning on doing so on February 25th. I suppose they were trying to tease out issues of importance that might persuade an undecided or floating voter to choose them so that they can feign interest in these issues for the two weeks before polling day.

“But you wouldn’t vote for them?”, I said. He wouldn’t either, but that didn’t matter. His friend took part in the charade too and he had no intention of voting that way. They didn’t know the other six in the group but it seems unlikely that all six fulfilled this very basic requirement. How useless must that data have been? What a waste of money for the party.

Still, I liked the sound of easy money and was able to get myself signed up for a subsequent focus group. Not politics this time but food. The friendly facilitator gave me a call and we went through a number of preliminary screening questions. But he wasn’t really letting me give my own answers – he was coaching me: “Okay, so I need a negative answer for the next one”. And so on.

At one point he listed out six food products and I thought he said that I needed to have had at least one of them a minimum of three times in the previous year. I disliked all the products and would never dream of eating them so when he was finished I just picked a random one. There was a pause and then: “You see, I need you to say you’ve had at least three of them ..? Will I read you the list again?”

I said yes and we both chortled at the comical misunderstanding. When he asked me to confirm that I was 34 or older I confirmed – being flexible with the truth was obviously okay.

It’s a thorny one for market researchers. Why would anyone give up their time to take part in a study unless they are compensated? But money taints the results.

In summary, focus groups seem to be crap.

None of which leads very seamlessly to today’s wine but I’m sure nobody has forgotten that today is “Wine Blogging Wednesday” for Spain. Here’s the last from SpanishWines.ie for a while, featuring albillo – an indigenous Spanish white grape little seen beyond the Madrid outback.

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1. Bodegas Marañones, Picarana, Vinos de Madrid, 2009 -> €18 from SpanishWines.ie -> This biodynamic white is made from old vine (40-80yrs) albillo. It was Jancis Robinson’s “wine of the week” earlier this year – her teenage daughter loves it, apparently.

Albillo is known more for high glycerol levels and textural smoothness than for extravagant fruits, and the deliciously fat, palate-filling Picarana fits this bill perfectly. But there’s ample flavour too with apricot, croissant, and the lushest of new French oak all in evidence. Gorgeous drink, even if it can’t quite keep its 14.5% alcohol under wraps. ****