Does price influence enjoyment/perception of wine?

[Roy Hersh]

A brief and fun article written on the bias that price has on the perception of wine's pleasure:

http://www.theage.com.au/cgi-bin/common ... 44428.html


I recently have been immersed in a discussion of the merits of wine drinking and mentioned that Robert Parker evaluates wines without tasting them "blind."

My tasting groups ONLY do blind tastings and as those of you who know my works (and have seen them first hand know) when I do my annual Vintage Port Forecast, it is always done blind.

So what do you think, would you have fallen prey to the same psychological "trick" as was illustrated in the article?

[Al B.]

I like tasting wines blind for the very reasons that have been articulated in the article. I know that my perception of a wine is influenced by what I read about it and, at least if I'm tasting rather than drinking in company, I like to at least try to evaluate a wine on its merits and not on my expectations.

Those expectations can work both in favour of a wine and against it. I'm sure that sometimes my preconceptions have improved my appreciation for a wine and sometimes, if the wine does not meet my expectations, then I am probably more harsh on it than I would have been otherwise.

But all of that goes out of the window if I'm sharing a bottle with friends for pleasure. Then I'm happy to know what a wine is in advance as half of the fun is talking about the wine, what we know about it and debating whether it deserves its reputation or not. Why hide the label from your friends if you're opening a bottle of 1982 Grange - surely you'd want everyone to feel the anticipation as it's opened, decanted and poured...

Alex

[Todd Pettinger]

Amazing the power of the brain, isn't it???

So, who wants to come to my house for a rare Port tasting... I will be serving six different bottles of Port that will be labelled as "Quinta do Noval Nacional, 1931" and attach a price tag to each one from an auction price gleaned off the internet: £4500 (equal to approximately $9000 US/CAN dollars.)

It may just be a Warre 1995 LBV or a Cockburn Ruby, but dammit, you WILL believe that it is '31 Nacional!!!

(Of course, anyone who has tasted an ACTUAL '31 Nacional, please understand, the tasting will be held on a night you cannot attend. I don't need my cover blown!!)

[Luc Gauthier]

Question : Will you let Evan decant a '31 Nacional ?