You’ve just landed yourself a date with a really cute girl who lives in
your apartment building. You’ve managed to get lost in a conversation about
wines as she was talking about a nice “aperitif” and how “unctuous” her new
batch tasted. She is clearly a wine expert, so you try to impress them by
talking about the local vineyards that you’ve heard of. While lost in the elegance
of her words, you agree to a wine tasting with her this Saturday! The only
problem is that you presented yourself to be a wine connoisseur, yet you’ve
never bought a bottle worth more than $8. Can you pull off this masquerade and
impress her with your wine “knowledge”?
Doubtful, at least according to some recent
research. Wine and winemakers have been around for thousands of years, and a
lot has changed in the industry over this time. Fine wine is highly valued and
not a common treat for the average consumer, as it can be quite expensive. But
is the price of fine wine really justified by its taste? Do we need to be “wine
experts” in order to truly enjoy fine wine? A recent study conducted by
Allesandro and Pecotich examined the ability of wine amateurs and experts to
determine the quality of wines that they taste tested. University students
represented the amateur wine drinkers, while the expert wine drinkers were
members of a professional wine tasting society. The researchers were interested
in the differences between amateurs and experts decisions when determining wine
quality, price, value and intent to purchase. They predicted that the wine
label would influence amateur decisions, but not expert decisions because they
have a better grasp on wine tasting.
This one is from France, so it must
be good!
Just because a wine is from a reputable
country does not mean it’s a high quality wine. A wine producing country has
numerous winemakers, and not all of them produce fine wine. The research showed
that wine experts did not base their quality judgements on the wine’s country
of origin, but amateurs did. For amateur wine drinkers, the country of origin
was played a large role when determining the quality of the wine they tasted. A
wine from China, an unpopular wine producer, was typically viewed to be of
lower quality than a wine from a reputable country such as France or Italy.
I can taste the work that went into this wine, definitely an expensive
cabernet.
The wine industry standard is to rate each
wine on a scale of 0-20, with points being given for appearance, aroma, and
taste. The study showed that amateurs were unable to accurately determine the
quality of a wine by its taste. Although amateurs were able to detect subtle
differences in flavours and aromas, they were typically unable to explain the
differences they tasted. Meanwhile, experts had no problems rating the quality
of the wines they tasted, likely because they are familiar with the industry
rating standard.
As the researchers suspected, amateurs (most
of us) were poor at gauging the quality of a wine because they tended to use
the label as the basis of their decisions. This research is also important for
winemakers and distributors when creating and marketing a new wine label, so
they can better reach their target consumers (whether amateurs or experts).
So what does this mean for your date on
Saturday? Come clean about your “little white-wine lie”. An amateur wine
drinker lacks the experience that an expert has, and by trying to base your
quality predictions off of the wine label or taste differences you’ll look more
like an amateur. Don’t try to pull off this masquerade on Saturday because she’ll
catch on to it, and she’ll think you’re the lowest of the merlot.
-Myles Maillet
D'Alessandro, S., & Pecotich, A. (2013). Evaluation of
wine by expert and novice consumers in the
presence of variations in quality,
brand and country of origin cues. Food Quality and Preference, 28(1), 287-303. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2012.10.002
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