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I've read many studies that depicted folks not able to distinguish the price point of wine[1] but not being able to tell the "color" of wine is slightly redicul

I've read many studies that depicted folks not able to distinguish the price point of wine[1] but not being able to tell the "color" of wine is slightly rediculous to anyone who've drank enough wine. The flavor profiles are extremely different. P.S. I spent 10 years in hospitality industry and have known many wine sommeliers, purveyors, and restaurant owners and have sold enough wine to be able to judge the regular public. I've also participated in many blind tastings and never experienced anyone "mixing up" the verity of wine. P.P.S. I put color in quotes because all wine is white, red wine gets its color from the skin of the grape and the oak barrels. That's why Oak Ages Chardonnay is "golden", it took a bit of the oak barrel with it. If you're curious, white Pinot Nior should be easy to find. Try a blind test against other verities, for scientific purposes. [1]: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-tasting-junk-science-analysis https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/jun/23/wine-ta...

S_Daedalus 10y ago
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/08/19/the-red-and-the-white http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/08/19/the-red-and-the... Granted, "Study after study" was clearly wrong.
- smcl 10y ago
  Seems this is typical of urban legends - something that has a hint of truth but which has been retold in a way to produce a more sensational sounding result. Snopes did a little digging a couple of years back to find out what the origin of this story was: http://sciencesnopes.blogspot.cz/2013/05/about-that-wine-experiment.html http://sciencesnopes.blogspot.cz/2013/05/about-that-wine-exp... To save you the bother of reading the article (though it is pretty interesting) here's the key few sentences which describe the experiment setup and execution. Essentially a scientist called Frédéric Brochet was doing some research into "perception and wine tasting" and setup an experiment with some undergraduate enology (wine tasting) students. "The undergraduate subjects came into the lab one week and were given a glass of a red wine and a glass of a white wine. (both Bordeaux, but the experimental details do not include any label or vintage, so we are unable to judge them) They were supplied with a list of potential descriptive words, and told to make a list of words and phrases that best described each wine, either from the supplied list or in their own words. The following week they return to the lab for another session. They were presented with two glasses, one containing white wine, and the other containing the same wine dyed red. They were then given the list of descriptors that they had used to describe the wines from the previous week, and asked to choose which of the wines in front of them best represented each descriptor. It was a forced-choice setup" So "undergraduate students select the same words to describe a red wine which they had previously used to describe a white" becomes "wine experts can't tell the difference between red and white".
  - dagw 10y ago
    Here is the paper of actual study: http://web.archive.org/web/20070928231853/http://www.academie-amorim.com/us/laureat_2001/brochet.pdf http://web.archive.org/web/20070928231853/http://www.academi... It is infuriatingly short of methodological detail and the little that is there is very much open to questioning.

S_Daedalus 10y ago

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/08/19/the-red-and-the-white http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/08/19/the-red-and-the... Granted, "Study after study" was clearly wrong.

smcl 10y ago
Seems this is typical of urban legends - something that has a hint of truth but which has been retold in a way to produce a more sensational sounding result. Snopes did a little digging a couple of years back to find out what the origin of this story was: http://sciencesnopes.blogspot.cz/2013/05/about-that-wine-experiment.html http://sciencesnopes.blogspot.cz/2013/05/about-that-wine-exp... To save you the bother of reading the article (though it is pretty interesting) here's the key few sentences which describe the experiment setup and execution. Essentially a scientist called Frédéric Brochet was doing some research into "perception and wine tasting" and setup an experiment with some undergraduate enology (wine tasting) students. "The undergraduate subjects came into the lab one week and were given a glass of a red wine and a glass of a white wine. (both Bordeaux, but the experimental details do not include any label or vintage, so we are unable to judge them) They were supplied with a list of potential descriptive words, and told to make a list of words and phrases that best described each wine, either from the supplied list or in their own words. The following week they return to the lab for another session. They were presented with two glasses, one containing white wine, and the other containing the same wine dyed red. They were then given the list of descriptors that they had used to describe the wines from the previous week, and asked to choose which of the wines in front of them best represented each descriptor. It was a forced-choice setup" So "undergraduate students select the same words to describe a red wine which they had previously used to describe a white" becomes "wine experts can't tell the difference between red and white".
- dagw 10y ago
  Here is the paper of actual study: http://web.archive.org/web/20070928231853/http://www.academie-amorim.com/us/laureat_2001/brochet.pdf http://web.archive.org/web/20070928231853/http://www.academi... It is infuriatingly short of methodological detail and the little that is there is very much open to questioning.