According to a new study from the researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology, the more wine costs, the more people enjoy it, no matter what it tastes like.
Is that true? Most people would agree that the year in which the wine was made is important and can influence the taste of the wine. The older the wine, the more the wine will cost. Reputation of the wine maker can also play a part in how much the wine costs and how willing people are to buy the very best.
So is it fair to say people choose wine based on cost and ignore the other things that might influence buying? The answer is simple: No!
When someone goes to the store to buy a roast, they choose between the cheapest cuts which contain more fat and the more expensive cuts have less than 5% fat or less. People make a conscious decision to buy the best in order to get the best. Does it not make sense for people to buy the wine that is the best even if it cost more?
This study proves nothing. They only tested 20 people and according to the research those 20 people experience a reaction in the medial orbital frontal cortex of the brain that registers pleasure. The test subjects had this reaction before drinking the wine; they had the reaction based on expectations. Those expectations were based on the price of the wine.
A true study of the price of wine and the price would have been to give each subject a small glass of each test wine and asking them to guess whether the wine was a high price wine or low price. When you tell the test subject what the price is before the test occurs of course they are going to expect the best.
Price makes one expect the best, but price does not make it the best.
