April 2011
Featured in this insight: Consumer goods & FMCG , Food & drink
Survey shows UK drinkers can't differentiate between plonk and pricey wines: A study for the Daily Telegraph of 578 members of the public at the Edinburgh Science Festival has found that most UK drinkers can’t tell the difference between cheap wine and expensive vintages.
A “blind” tasting challenge that most people are simply paying for the label when purchasing a more expensive bottle of wine – they can’t in fact tell the difference in flavour.
Those surveyed were offered a selection of red and white wines in the less than £5 price bracket alongside other vintages priced in the £10 to £30 mark. When asked to choose between the wines, participants were unable to distinguish the cheap brands from their pricier counterparts.
University of Hertfordshire psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman, who led the research, commented: "People were unable to tell expensive from inexpensive wines, and so in these times of financial hardship the message is clear – the inexpensive wines we tested tasted the same as their expensive counterparts”.
He added: "The real surprise is that the more expensive wines were double or three times the price of the cheaper ones. Normally when a product is that much more expensive, you would expect to be able to tell the difference."
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