A personal taste assessment system receives a person's ratings for various rated items, such as wines or other beverages, and it develops a preference model for the person based on the received ratings. When developing the preference model, the system accesses a database of candidate items, wherein each candidate item is associated with at least one trait value. The system retrieves from the database a value for at least one trait for each of the rated items, identifies at least one pattern of dependency between at least one of the retrieved trait values and at least one of the received ratings, and determines a preference model based on the at least one pattern of dependency. The system may use the preference model to develop a preference profile for the person, make recommendations, and/or make predictions as to items that the person and/or a group that includes the person may enjoy.