Consumers fail cheap plonk taste test

A survey of almost 600 people has found that most drinkers can’t tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine.

A blind taste test involving 578 visitors to the Edinburgh International Science Festival, discovered that people could only distinguish between cheap and expensive white wine 53 per cent of the time. In tests involving red wine, that percentage fell to 47 per cent. 

Researchers used ‘cheap wines’ which cost £5 or less, and ‘expensive wines’ bought for £10 or more.

Richard Wiseman, a psychologist at Hertfordshire University, said: "People just could not tell the difference between cheap and expensive wine.

"When you know the answer, you fool yourself into thinking you would be able to tell the difference, but most people simply can't."

Even though some of the more expensive wines cost up to three times as much as the cheap bottles, the research found people were as likely to get the correct answer through taste alone as they were if they had tossed a coin to decide. The best advice would be to simply enjoy a meal of seasonal food and a glass of wine, regardless of how much it cost.