Enjoyment of a wine correlates with its price

Here's direct link to the study

Funny part is how wine was delivered through a tube so oxygenation couldn't be a factor. Don't list what $5, $35 & $90 cabs were,.

DaleW wrote on Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:04:41 -0800 (PST):

D> Here's direct link to the study D>

Thanks for the link. I have not read it all as yet but wasn't the number of subjects (20) not a little small?

Mind you, I tend to agree with the general conclusions and environmentally modified conclusions are not confined to wine. I was once congratulated by an enthusiastic friend on finally getting a hi-fi system when it was only a table radio playing inside the bar! (I do have two reasonably good systems now.)

James Silverton Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

I did read the study and I'm not a scientist but I have a problem with how or what they define as "enjoyment" as measured by some type of brain activity. I would guess that it would be hard to differentiate the cause of the changes in brain acitivity between perception of price versus pleasure and actual increase in pleasure. In other words was it the price point that caused the change or was it the perception of taste as a function of price? Did the wine taste better to the subjects at various price points or did their brain percieve that it should taste better at a higher price point? My guess is that if they gave the subjects wine, told them the prices and asked them to rate the wine that they would rate the most expensive wine higher than the least expensive wine even though they were the same wine.

Hello Even the hyperborean barbars were reached by the dread news ... You know, the newbie course in the Swedish Tastevin Society does teach you how to differentiate a high quality plonk from a low quality (among other things). It is the final exam: two whites, two reds, tell which white and which red is the highendian one. A test few do not pass. We are of course talking Swedes here: it might not be applicable on humans. Nevertheless. Cheers Nils

Along the same vein, what most are missing is that the subjects are Cal Tech students. While my nephew is there, I find most a little weird.

---- snip ---

If you read the file in the link above, you encounter the following statement:

"The subjects were instructed to hold the output tube between their lips like a straw while they lied in a supine position in the scanner."

It could make you doubt the truthfulness of the subjects :

Now, not in the vein of the "test," but at a recent Cab tasting with Caymus (not SS), Groth (not Red Stripe), Far Niente, and a few others, my favorite was the Signorello Edge @ US$15. Reminded me of 2er Cru Bdx. and I bought a case. Now, I knew which wines were in the lineup, just not what was being poured. I did not see a price tag on each bottle, but think I still would have chosen this one, regardless of price. I might have awarded more stars, points, or whatever, to the big-guys, had each btl. had a sticker with the MSLP, but I doubt it. If it's good wine, I like it better, than poor wine with a big sticker, or pedigree.

Hunt