Expensive Wines Don't Win Out In Mass Taste Test

Wine-imbibers, you may be paying too much for that expensive bottle of wine, according to psychologist Prof Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire and this year's Guest Director at the Edinburgh International Science Festival.

Wiseman has revealed the results of a wine Taste Test, where over 500 members of the public  tasted either an expensive or inexpensive wine, and then tried to tell which was which.

The inexpensive wines cost less than £5 per bottle, and the expensive ones were priced between £10 and £30.

The experimenters tested a mixture of red and white wines from various countries, including Sauvignon Blanc, Rioja, Claret and Champagne.

In the 'double-blind' test, neither the tasters nor experimenters knew the cost of the wine. If left purely to chance the volunteers would have correctly classified their wine as expensive or inexpensive 50% of the time.

In the test, volunteers' actual accuracy was exactly at chance, demonstrating that they could not distinguish between the two types of wine by taste alone.

"These are remarkable results," said Wiseman.

"People were unable to tell expensive from inexpensive wines, and so in these times of financial hardship the message is clear - the inexpensive wines we tested taste the same as their expensive counterparts". 

Wine tasting results

The Edinburgh International Science Festival runs from 9 to 22 April 2011 with over 200 events in 30 venues across the city.