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We should not underestimate the social and "hype" aspects of enjoying something. I enjoy things a lot more when I'm primed to enjoy them. It's sort of like the placebo effect for enjoyment. I'm much more charitable with a film made by a director who is well regarded than by an unknown, for better or worse. I suppose you can go the opposite way and only like things other people turn their noses at, but that's a bit misanthropic.

And the exclusivity factor. Whether a hidden vacation spot, restaurant, food, or under-appreciated spirit. Even a paid app from an indie dev gets is often more loved than the same app from mega corp would even if given away free.

Also why every large brewer has a bunch of "micro" brew labels with the big corp name nowhere in sight.

A Japanese friend gave me a bottle of Suntory about 10 years ago and it was my favorite whisky to share and talk about with others precisely because so unknown. It was also very tasty.

It's one of the main brands you can buy in any Japanese supermarket. It's also quite good value for money.

Suntory is the only Japanese whiskey featured in a $100MM-grossing motion picture, and that was 15 years ago.

I strongly disagree, otherwise you get stuck in an echo chamber.

I tend to enjoy things that other people do. However, I become more critical when something is considered 'good' or expensive not less. So, I prefer to go in fairly blind vs listen to a lot of hype.

I find the opposite often to be true, if something's hyped up I often find that I'm primed to be disappointed.

I have heard similar stories about Patrón Tequila, which is marketed as a premium tequila and definitely one of the more pricey brands. It was originally produced by the Casa Siete Leguas distillery. However, they moved production to a newer distillery in 2002 to allow for more mass production.

It was argued that the move caused a major decrease in quality and no longer deserves the premium price tag it goes for nowadays.

It's impossible for me to say if these claims are true since the move happened a while ago, but it is another example of consumers arguing quality differences in a product.

In this case, Siete Leguas still produces tequila - would be interesting to compare, as the prices between Siete Leguas and Patrón are not too far off.

https://www.totalwine.com/spirits/tequila/blanco-silver/7-le...

It is by far one of the best tequilas available at any price. In particular their añejos and reposados.

Patron is still a great tequila. But if Siete Leguas is available, I'll choose it every time.

There’s an old saying, “There’s no accounting for taste.” Food, drink, art, fashion, music, they’re all driven by the process you describe. Aka “trends”.

There’s a reason presentation is such a huge part of cooking. Context is important when trying to assign a value to the appeal of something.

Presentation is most important when one needs to give further value to sell food overpriced. Compare for example those two meals: https://bit.ly/2ujGdla and https://bit.ly/2KV1jAM

Without any doubt the second ingredients kill the first ones in nourishing value, therefore they have literally to invent new ways of rearranging them so that the presentation "value" justifies the price. I have no doubt the first meal would cost multiple times the second, but no way I would take one even if I'd be fine spending that money for something that could only make me more hungry.

So, you can think of nothing in that first meal apart from presentation that would justify higher price?

And what is "nourishing value"? Calories?

Yes, absolutely nothing. It can surely be an interesting exercise in aesthetics (admittedly it's beautiful to look at) and taste mixing, but I see it more related to tasting than eating.

Same thing happened with South American Malbecs a few years ago. I used to find very nice quality Malbecs from Chile and Argentina for under $10. Now they sell for double.

>It was a very good wine for cheap and wine hipsters loved it.

> Because it is now popular, and relatively expensive, wine hipsters turn their nose up at it.

Could it be that the so-called hipsters enjoyed the wine priced at $9.99 but not when the price nearly doubled?

Japanese whiskey is pretty damn good though and quality does usually go down when production is increased (esp with whiskey as they often have to change the water source, grain, and aging processes).

It would be trivially easy to support that claim about the wine. You just do a blind vertical taste test.

Good. Alto Adige is full of great wines to explore. Don’t fixate on one producer — and try other varietals too.

I see nothing in the post you're replying to that says they haven't explored other producers or varietals.

You appear to be applauding the fact that a wine which used to be a good value for money became either worse or, at the very least, a worse value. That seems like an odd reaction.

Sometimes you need a push to break out of your comfort zone. And yes generally people into Pinot Grigio, even the best ones, could use a push. Alto Adige has fantastic and interesting other varietals.

Psst, Old Grand Dad BIB 100 is pretty good. Don’t tell anyone.

> it shows it to be spectrometrically, molecularly, and even atomically identical in every way

The problem with that kind of statement is that you vastly overestimate the analytical capabilities that we have. Yeah, with infinite resources we can probably pretty well separate and understand every component of a good wine or Whisky, but that's not something that simple to do, and is ripe with incertitude with each measurement.