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A lot of comments are talking about whether or not an expert can distinguish between a cheap and an expensive wine. I don't understand how they possibly could. You can't taste price. Of course I understand the point of the argument, but it seems to disregard a slew of market dynamics that dictates price. It just seems very uninteresting to try to judge wine expertise by deducing price categories. Maybe I'm wrong?

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Nah, you're not wrong. As a bit of wine nerd, I've never heard other wine nerds care too much about how expensive a wine is. What they care about, and love talking about, is geography and grapes and production methods. Now some of those factors do correlate with price, but everybody is very aware that a lot of expensive wine is pure marketing, and that some producers are able to make wines that punch far above their weight, price wise.

Correct- also, in blind tasting, you're never asked to identify the price or price level of the wine.

Now, as a wine professional, you do care about the price of the wine because it is an integral part of your business. However, when I taste to buy for my business, I try to evaluate the wine before knowing the price. Then I decide whether I like it and would like to sell it before going through the second evaluation phase based on price.

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