I can guarantee that every time I do a champagne event one of the first questions that comes up is about the price of each of the champagnes we taste.
Fair enough, if you’re thinking of buying wine or anything else the price is an important piece of information, but I avoid giving out the prices until the very end of the tastings so as to allow everyone the chance to judge the champagnes purely on whether they like them or not. As I always say “ just about the only thing that the price tag tells you is the marketing policy”
In most cases the price is not just irrelevant, but downright misleading....
The fact is that knowing the price distorts the rest of our judgement : the higher the price the ‘better’ we assume the product must be, but this isn’t necessarily true.
There’s a very revealing article in this month’s edition of Decanter magazine that proves exactly this point.
Two recent pieces of research conducted in America, one by The American Association of Wine Economists ( Yes, I was amazed too that there is such an association ), the other by Stanford University, both came to much the same conclusion: in a blind tasting when the price is not known, non-experts will prefer cheaper wines, but when the price is known in advance it’s the more expensive wines that are preferred, and this holds true even when the price information given is deliberately false.
Wow, it just goes to show that price tags and even recommendations from wine commentators are poor guides to help you decide what you like.
That’s why at all my events the emphasis is on helping the guests to make up their own mind and giving them the confidence to do just that.
When it comes to deciding what each one of us likes, we’re all wine experts, and whatever you choose is fine. It’s doesn’t matter if other people don’t agree with you, in fact that’s a very good reason for sticking to your own opinion. Unfortunately most people make up their minds according to what other people do or say, but as Malcolm Muggeridge said “ Only dead fish swim with the stream “
To learn more about my corporate and private champagne events
e-mail sparkle@champagne-discovery.co.uk or call 0845 123 1284
Sparkling wishes
Jiles Halling
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