Expensive wine tricks our minds into thinking it tastes better

Thanks to Robert for this article.

Not a huge surprise, but research has confirmed that we are wired for wine snobbery: If we are served the same wine twice, but the first time we're told it's $7 and the second time we're told it's $21, guess which one we'll say tastes better?

You know what this means. It means we must work very hard to avoid being tricked into paying too much for wine. This is what I work so hard on--finding great wines at low prices. I think I have lost some customers over the years, who want to pay more for wines than most of the wines I offer. It's sad that they have bought so hard into the myth that most $50 bottles taste far better than most $20 bottles. I sell a few $10 bottles that have won major, major awards over much-more expensive wines. I even found a $7 wine (Chat St Michelle's Dry Riesling) that won Double Gold over wines costing twice as much, five times as much, even TEN TIMES AS MUCH. Just think about that.

Not sure about you, but I have better things to do with my money, than to waste it by overpaying for wines. Train your mind to work for you, not against you!

Wine snobbery versus lower-cost wines

This excellent opinion piece from the New York Times makes the argument that while wine snobbery is at an all-time high, the quality of cheap wines is closer to the quality of very fine wines than it has ever been. This is due to vast increases in winemakers' skills and toolsets.

The average price of a bottle of wine drunk in the US now is $10. I have long believed that it isn't necessary to pay $30, $50, or $100 to get a fantastic bottle of wine. Studies show that even if you work really hard to waste money, it's difficult for a winery to have fixed and variable costs greater than about $25 per bottle, so when you see prices of $125 for an Oregon Pinot, you are paying at least $100 profit PER BOTTLE to the winery's lucky owner. Meanwhile, there are countless (truly a vast number) of $20-and-under wines that are just as good. Wow.