In his recent post, “The Subjectivity of Wine” (via John S. Rhones on Twitter), Jonah Lehrer mentions two interesting studies on wine.
In 2001, Frederic Brochet, of the University of Bordeaux, conducted two separate and very mischievous experiments. In the first test, Brochet invited 57 wine experts and asked them to give their impressions of what looked like two glasses of red and white wine. The wines were actually the same white wine, one of which had been tinted red with food coloring. But that didn’t stop the experts from describing the “red” wine in language typically used to describe red wines. One expert praised its “jamminess,” while another enjoyed its “crushed red fruit.” Not a single one noticed it was actually a white wine.
The second test Brochet conducted was even more damning. He took a middling Bordeaux and served it in two different bottles. One bottle was a fancy grand-cru. The other bottle was an ordinary vin du table. Despite the fact that they were actually being served the exact same wine, the experts gave the differently labeled bottles nearly opposite ratings. The grand cru was “agreeable, woody, complex, balanced and rounded,” while the vin du table was “weak, short, light, flat and faulty”. Forty experts said the wine with the fancy label was worth drinking, while only 12 said the cheap wine was.
Whether you agree or not, John Lehrer’s Subjectivity of Wine article is definitely worth a read.
See I’ve always thought this, but now I’m wondering. You’re a wine drinker, you think this. So is wine divided in to two groups, “piss” and “not piss”, or is there a genuine difference between them that justifies the varying price?
Hi Des,
thanks for dropping by. Haven’t seen you in ages.
Piss and not piss is definitely one way to categorise wines, though I’m not sure the wine board of Ireland would be too happy with that classification.
There is a genuine difference between wines to a point, but you can often pick up a wine for under a tenner that is many times better than one for a pony.
I think the key thing is to try new things, find what you like and not to be too influenced by what the experts think or get lulled into the trap where if it’s expensive, it must be good.