In a blind taste test for wines at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, 578 taste testers sampled different varieties of reds and whites. The surprising result shows that most wine testers cannot tell which wines are expensive and which are not. Based on the taste, there is a 50% chance of identifying wine as cheap or expensive. That is like flipping a coin to tell which is which.
According to psychologist Richard Wiseman, “People just could not tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine. When you know the answer, you fool yourself into thinking you would be able to tell the difference, but most people simply can’t."
In reality, some wines are the same but are sold only with different brands that have different prices. The prices of expensive wines are two or three times higher than the cheaper ones.
2008 wine economics research tells us that only experts can distinguish almost accurately the expensive wines from cheaper ones. Those who are unaware of the price prefer the cheaper ones.
According to the same study, people have different preferences for wines and he or she might just not like the same type of wines as experts. Wine drinkers should not anticipate more satisfaction of the intrinsic qualities of a wine by its price or by the appreciation of experts.
