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Comment by brandonmenc | Hacker News Reader

> and frankly still do

Oh, come on.

Even budget grocery stores separate their wines by region and grape.

Just about every American who drinks wine has their favorites, even if it just goes as far as something like "I like Malbec because it's less dry."

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Sure they do, but does the average consumer understand the difference between the regions and grapes? Probably not. I bet there are even many experienced drinkers who could not identify them in a blind test.

In blind tests it's the same for beer. And colas.

Doesn't research show that even wine experts cannot do that?

It’s complicated. A lot of the research is misreported. The supposed study demonstrating that experts can’t tell the difference between red and white wine says no such thing. But people do love a narrative that takes the wind out of a snob’s sails, so the legend persists.

True experts can distinguish an astonishing number of characteristics of wine in a blind taste. Most people are not experts. The price of wine is also largely decoupled from how much any given person will enjoy it. (However, psychologically, you will probably enjoy a bottle you paid $100 for more than one you paid $20 for.)

Basically: Wine is not all just indistinguishable fermented grape juice, but most stuff written about wine is a combination of bunk and rarified trivia no normal drinker should care about. Drink what makes you happy.

Sidenote on wine pricing, heard on the radio: in Europe, the cost of everything but the contents of a bottle of wine is about €2.50 (or a bit higher). That covers the glass, the label, transport, branding of the chateau, etc.

Corollary: the wine in a €4 euro bottle is 3x as expensive as the wine in a €3 bottle €1.50 vs €0.50).

That broadcast was a while ago, so the details might not be exact. But the main point is that after the first (about) 3 euro, you're starting to spend money on the contents. Before, you're literally paying a few pennies for the wine...

Another feather in the cap of box wine.

That's probably true outside of wine-producing regions. In wine-producing regions of Europe, you can get a cheap bottle of wine for €1. It's often decent* quality too.

* well, better than the £5 bottles you get here in the UK

There are some variables though. Like the glass bottle, screw top vs. plastic cork vs. real cork, and quality of label printing.

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