I saw this book today and paged through it. If I read his intro correctly, he set up wine tastings with “the man on the street” to determine what wines they liked best. There are many wines on his recommended list that I drink but sorry…I have a hard time respecting a book that recommends the awful IMO charles shaw wines. BTW, The author is the guy who made the fake wine list and sent it in to wine spectator for their “award of excellence BS”.
Just wondering if folks have checked this out and if I understand the methodology correctly (just gave it a quick skim)
I tried to do a search on the board for “wine trials” but I cant seem to figure out how to search for a whole phrase.
I looked at this back in '08. My thoughts at the time:
“'Hide the label, and the truth comes out.”
“'Find out which $10 Portugese Vinho Verde, $12 Washington State Brut, and $10 Greek Muscat beat out wines ten times their price.”
“Learn how your brain can be fooled by expectations, and how blind tasting can open your eyes.”
Now, you have to admit the assertion that wine pricing bears little relation to quality is not a new concept. One could say the same thing about clothes, cars, jewelry and any number of “luxury goods,” yet we don’t seem to question whether we’re getting our money’s worth. So, if a book came along that telling you that price was no guarantee of quality in a wine, would you care?
Well, a book like that has come along (I’m sure there have been others), and they seem to have gone to great lengths to substantiate their findings. It is fairly convincing documentation, I might add, with 500+ tasters, a few dozen scientific and academic types, and more than a few editors and contributors.
However, it really can’t surprise anyone to hear that we are highly influenced by packaging. And of course it is quite tough to quantify something as subjective as taste and smell. So, maybe we are making buying decisions on an emotional level instead of letting our senses take over. No? Then why do we persist in buying wines based on the winemaker’s reputation, the appellation, or the cute label rather than purely on taste? Oh sure, we do buy many wines on taste - but by no means all of them.
I find books such as this instructive and even a bit entertaining. It’s like leafing through People magazine. There are actually some pieces of info in there that cause you to reflect, “oh, I didn’t know that.” All of that said, there is something here to ferret out. Value wines. And, right now, that’s exactly where I live.’"
Thomas Pellechia, IMO, typically offers unvarnished coverage of true benefit to consumers. An authentic consumer advocate ! Not to mention that he’s a real nice guy with a wry sense of humor.