Just returning from a 4-day wine country vacation where we have been talking a lot about wine with our friends, the trip home wasn’t any different. The other night, we shared with them one of my wife’s organizational practices of writing the price and retailer on the bottles of wine we purchase locally. In a lot of situations, I may not track these wines in CellarTacker because they will be enjoyed soon and can often be weeknight quaffers. Other times, I am just lazy and can get behind on updating the system. 
Arlo & Janis (5/28/96) by Jimmy Johnson
At first we all agreed that seemed like a good system, because often we forget what we bought, when we bought it and for how much and sometimes that is good information to have when determining what to drink at any particular time. But, then the question was raised: “Well, do you care if your guests see the price you have written on the bottle?” Hmmm, we all thought to ourselves. Our initial thoughts were that it didn’t bother any of us. Wine should be evaluated on it’s own merits, not where it came from or what it cost. And we firmly believe that, as human beings, we will be “anchored” with what we should expect from a wine at a certain price level if we know it ahead of time, which will only mess with the experience. Check out this recently published studyby Hilke Plassmann of the California Institute of Technology where it was explained that the medial orbitofrontal cortex, which is the part of your brain responsible for pleasurable experiences, displayed much more activity when the subject was tasting a more expensive wine than a less expensive one after being told the price of each ahead of time. Another research project called The Wine Trials approached this from a different angle by showing many wines that were less than $15 outscoring wines of $50-150 range in blind tastings.
Additionally, beyond the anchoring aspect and the experience expected from the wine based on price, do you feel your guest would consider you cheap if you put a $7 bottle on the table for them while attending your gathering? Please feel free to comment and share your opinion and, of course, any related stories you may have.
Cheers!
Well, I don’t know anything about the “medial orbitofrontal cortex,” but I can tell you that when a wine is expensive, or is a very limited production wine, and I know this before I taste it, I am predisposed to liking it more. I’m not proud of this, but I find it’s the truth.
One of the most eye-opening tasting experiences I’ve had is when I went to a blind tasting, and my favorite wine of the evening turned out to be a $12 Merlot from Washington State. Which I then bought bottle after bottle of, and was happy to do so!
I always put prices on the blog with the reviews, but almost never discuss them in real life and will scratch off the price stickers when necessary. If somebody asks me at dinner I’ll let them know, but mostly I want people to like or dislike the wine on its own merits.
Pricing is weird, too. There was a local restaurant that used to sell $8 bottles of Korbel for $35, and I wouldn’t pay either price. There are those regional variations, where the price varies wildly across the country (particularly with imports), plus state wine taxes and other stuff. Thus your $10 of a simple Rhone wine in one state becomes a $30 indulgence in another.
One of my strangest experiences with wine pricing came at a small blind tasting. 12 wines from a small California producer. They were good, but not spectacular. The tasters included retailers, distributors, bloggers, and novices. Afterward we agreed that a price of about $40 per bottle seemed appropriate. Then the bags came off and the price sheet came out, revealing each wine priced at $200. Our little group had burned through $2400 in wine and still weren’t that impressed.
I often like to mix it up with a cheapie and a pricier bottle for my guests (or many of each). Usually, I don’t have a problem sharing the expensive stuff with good friends, because they either do the same for us, or (more importantly), I want all the folks who drink the same $7 stuff every day to experience why some wines are worth the pricetag. Or, find another $7 wine (usually from an “unknown” region) that blows the incumbent out of the water. But, your article is right on: whether we like it or not, perception becomes reality, and we are absolutely, 100% influenced by price.
Maybe we are predisposed to like a more expensive wine because we can’t stand the thought that we blew $50 on a crappy bottle of wine.
It is interesting how our brains play tricks on us.
I don’t really have a problem with serving an inexpensive bottle of wine to my friends, but I also wouldn’t hesitate to serve a nicer bottle, just depending on the setting. I generally wait to give much information about the wine until people have already tried it, and have started to form their own opinions about it. I also am fortunate to have friends who generally aren’t concerned with how much I spent on the wine.