Wine, can you tell the difference?

Question

Can you really tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine? I like some wines priced around £5 and some that are double that but I can't say I can tell a difference between them. Have I just not bought an expensive enough bottle or am I uneducated! Is it just snobbery?

My favourite wine at the moment is Chianti and is around £7

Answer 1

The tax on a bottle of wine is the same,no matter how much (or little) you pay - so on a cheap bottle,say £3.99,you pay a higher proportion of tax, on cheaper wine. Your £7 bottle of Chianti should be quite a decent wine. Is it possible to tell the difference between a cheap wine and an expensive one ? - I don`t know - I think that sometimes all we are doing is finding a wine that is more to our taste - no matter what the price. I have tasted some dreadfull wines at £20+ and really good stuff at £6-£10.

Answer 2

Personally, yes i can taste a difference. Cheaper wine tastes totally different to more expensive wine. The latter tends to be smoother and have a better taste. It's like cheap vs expensive champaigne, the difference is vast.

At the end of the day though, whatever you're happy with, you're happy with and it doesn't matter if its £5 a bottle of £500 a bottle. Just enjoy!  x*x

Answer 3

there is a vast amount of wine snobbery, but there is some correlation of price to quality. whether you actually like the expensive wines is subjective, but the nicest wine i have ever had was a 1.30 euro (about a quid) from a supermarket in the south of france. I like cotes du rhone and this cheap bottle was the best i have ever had. They keep all the good stuff for themselves!

Answer 4

i cant;

Answer 5

I don`t buy expensive wines because the cheaper ones taste ok to me, I might be able to tell the difference if I tried them

Answer 6

Yes, indeed there are differences. I think that the snobbery and the wine industry contributes to certain wines being pushed and raved about that are not actually that good, and quite often there are new world hybrids at a fraction of the price of old world wines which are equal in quality, but much less in price.

I am quite happy that I am to an extent ignorant, as I'd be gutted if I only enjoyed wines at (for example) £50 plus per bottle. I always think how ridiculous it must be to have to try to buy the respect of friends etc, as celebrities do with their hundreds of pounds of Kristal champagne, or the business men who paid 15k for a bottle of some red French plonk at a business lunch a few years back. I don't care how much money I ever have- there has to be some perspective.

The other thing that always amuses me is when so-called posh people ask for some specific type of wine- say Semillon or Chardonnay, and then go and tip some sweet liqueur in it like Cassis. Might as well drink Gin and Ribena!

Anyway, snobbery is everywhere, not just in the wine world. Drink what tastes acceptable to you, and is the best value at the time, enjoy it, and sod the snobs who disapprove of your tastes- better they don't share your wine- more for you!! Let them "whine" whilst you "wine"!

Cheers!

Answer 7

I belong to a wine club and one of our themes was - Does price matter? We did a little exercise that I would recommend to anyone who can gather 6 or 8 or more people together and give it a try.

I believe we did this with Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. We had 3 bottles of each that we put in brown paper bags and tasted blind. We had a $10-ish  bottle, a $20-ish and one hovering around $50. The big trick to make this work is to try to eliminate other variables. So do all Central California Pinots or all Syrah from the Rhone, etc. Try to get all from the same vintage.  And if you have someone really knowledgable at your wine store, they may be able to get them in similar styles - unoaked, heavy fruit, whatever.

It's fun and informative. We mostly picked the mid-range wines, but I think the issue with the more expensive wines is that they are made to age and they needed time, whereas the less expensive wines are made to drink right away.

Answer 8

Yes and no.. There are great wines that are inexpensive, and there are great wines that cost a fortune. Price is not the best indicator of a wines quality, although if you do spend 40 or 50 dollars on a bottle it's probably going to be decent. However if you check reviews and try different bottles, you can get a great bottle of wine on the cheap.  So I can definately tell when I am drinking good wine vs bad wine, but expensive vs cheap? Not a chance.

Answer 9

Yes and no.

The price of a wine isn't directly tied to its quality, it's tied to how hard it was to make, how rare it is and how much it cost to import. So, for example, expensive German icewines are vastly superior to other types of late/frozen wine products and cost hundreds of dollars. On the other hand, a Merlot from a tiny region of France will cost more than a Merlot from California of equal quality thanks to the cost of importing. In that situation, there's no way to taste the increase in cost.

It also comes down to personal tastes. There are expensive wines that I haven't particularly liked and cheap wines that I enjoy. I can tell the difference between some wines from the same winery, and the more expensive ones do taste better.

Answer 10

You are uneducated.  I don't say that in a bad way... most people are concerning wine including me.  There is a difference and I think the only way to be able to notice it is experiance, so drink lots and lots of wine and you will soon become an expert!!