Pave: In Vino Latet Dolus

The secret behind expensive French plonk -- your gullible medial orbitofrontal cortex.

GREAT WINE? ONLY IF THE PRICE IS HIGH

CHICAGO January 15, 2008 (The Age) - Antonio Rangel, associate professor of economics at the California Institute of Technology, led a team to test how marketing shapes consumers' perceptions and whether it also enhances their enjoyment of a product.

They asked 21 volunteers to sample five different bottles of cabernet sauvignon and rate their taste preferences. The taste test was run 15 times, with the wines presented in random order. The taste test was blind except for information on the price of the wine...[passing] off a $US90 ($A101) bottle of cabernet sauvignon as a $US10 bottle, and presented a $US5 bottle as one worth $US45.

... The study found that inflating the price of a bottle of wine enhanced a person's experience of drinking it, as shown by the neural activity [in the medial orbitofrontal cortex]. Volunteers consistently gave higher ratings to more expensively labelled wines.

THERE'S YOUR PROBLEM, IT'S THE DAMN MOC
French Beer And French Government Taste Better Too!
[Photo source: O'Doherty et al., courtesy of PLoS Biology]

Certainly the French know how to over-price. [Pause.] Now you know why.

The next time your wine merchant starts talking up the fabulous "goût de terroir" of Languedoc-Roussillon for that $20 1997 Domaine Val St. Jean bibine you're holding, remember that's a hooey premium of 500%. Trust us, the price won't improve the taste.

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