Perception of almost anything can be influenced in many subtle and not-so-subtle ways. For most people, wine is considered a challenging topic to understand in

Perception of almost anything can be influenced in many subtle and not-so-subtle ways. For most people, wine is considered a challenging topic to understand in depth, and so most feel they are initially at serious disadvantage before taking a sip. Price is something everyone understands...and so is a powerful influence. Trying to suppress that is awfully hard. I would say that some expensive wine could taste better...subjective aspects of taste aside. Some wines begin with hand-harvested grapes...and only the very best of those make it into the barrel. Huge amount of labour and huge amount of grapes that don't make the grade. Perhaps the resulting wine will taste better...better grapes mean better wine. Perhaps it is only marginally better...but the costs to get that incremental benefit are enormous.