Brits ‘can’t differentiate between cheap plonk and fine wine’
April 14th, 2011 - 5:07 pm ICT by ANILondon, Apr 14 (ANI): A “blind” wine tasting challenge in the UK has revealed that most drinkers are unable to tell a cheap plonk from a wine costing up to six times as much.
The study led by psychologist Richard Wiseman suggested many people are just paying for the label when they splash out on a special bottle, reports the Daily Express.
Some 578 members of the public took part in the taste challenge. They were offered a range of red and white wines costing less than 5 pounds together with other vintages priced between 10 pounds and 30 pounds.
Participants at the Edinburgh Science Festival were asked which were cheap and which were expensive.
Purely by the laws of chance, they should have been able to make a correct guess 50 per cent of the time.
This was exactly the level of accuracy seen, demonstrating that the volunteers could not distinguish between wines by taste alone.
“These are remarkable results. People were unable to tell expensive from inexpensive wines,” said Prof Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire.
“In these times of financial hardship the message is clear - the inexpensive wines tasted the same as their expensive counterparts,” he added. (ANI)
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