Wine snobs vs. the unwashed masses
By Dave
May 15th, 2008 | Leave a comment
Wine lovers might experience conflicting thoughts about “The Wine Trials,” a book that explores the phenomenon of “wine snobbery” and how the taste of “experienced” or expert wine tasters varies from everyday wine drinkers.
One blind taste test with 500 people in some cases rated the cheaper wines higher than expensive ($150 a bottle) wines. When they narrowed the group to include only “experienced” oenophiles, the expensive wines fared much better, suggesting that the experienced tasters had a more trained palate and nose.
Author Robin Goldstein also found that price, marketing and other factors influenced preferences.
“The book suggests that if you take away all of these factors and make buying decisions strictly on the grounds of what tastes best in the glass, everyday wine drinkers prefer cheaper wines to more expensive wines,” writes Eric Asimov on his New York Times blog, The Pour.
Subtitled “100 Everyday Wines under $15 That Beat $50 to $150 Bottles,” the book also provides an in-depth listing of wines that did well in the trials.
“The Wine Trials,” ISBN 9780974014357, is on sale now, although some sellers are out of stock.
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