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Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better? Evidence from a Large Sample of Blind Tastings

Author

Listed:
  • Goldstein, Robin
  • Almenberg, Johan
  • Dreber, Anna
  • Emerson, John W.
  • Herschkowitsch, Alexis
  • Katz, Jacob

Abstract

Individuals who are unaware of the price do not derive more enjoyment from more expensive wine. In a sample of more than 6,000 blind tastings, we find that the correlation between price and overall rating is small and negative, suggesting that individuals on average enjoy more expensive wines slightly less. For individuals with wine training, however, we find indications of a non-negative relationship between price and enjoyment. Our results are robust to the inclusion of individual fixed effects, and are not driven by outliers: when omitting the top and bottom deciles of the price distribution, our qualitative results are strengthened, and the statistical significance is improved further. These findings suggest that non-expert wine consumers should not anticipate greater enjoyment of the intrinsic qualities of a wine simply because it is expensive or is appreciated by experts. (JEL Classification: L15, L66, M30, Q13)

Suggested Citation

  • Goldstein, Robin & Almenberg, Johan & Dreber, Anna & Emerson, John W. & Herschkowitsch, Alexis & Katz, Jacob, 2008. "Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better? Evidence from a Large Sample of Blind Tastings," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 1-9, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jwecon:v:3:y:2008:i:01:p:1-9_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Caracciolo, Francesco & D’Amico, Mario & Di Vita, Giuseppe & Pomarici, Eugenio & Dal Bianco, Andrea & Cembalo, Luigi, . "Private vs. Collective Wine Reputation," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 19(3), pages 1-20.
    2. Francisco B. Galarza & Gabriella Wong, 2017. "The Impact of Price Information on Consumer Behavior: An Experiment," Working Papers 106, Peruvian Economic Association.
    3. Carlo Altomonte & Italo Colantone & Enrico Pennings, 2016. "Heterogeneous Firms and Asymmetric Product Differentiation," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 835-874, December.
    4. Julian M. Alston & Davide Gaeta, 2021. "Reflections on the Political Economy of European Wine Appellations," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 7(2), pages 219-258, July.
    5. de Meza, David & Pathania, Vikram, 2021. "Is the Second-Cheapest Wine a Rip-Off? Economics vs. Psychology in Product-Line Pricing," Working Papers 321852, American Association of Wine Economists.
    6. Sambucci, Olena & Sumner, Daniel A. & Goldstein, Robin, 2020. "Effect of taxes and costly regulations on the licensed and unlicensed cannabis markets," 2020 Annual Meeting, July 26-28, Kansas City, Missouri 304602, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Babaioff, Moshe & Dobzinski, Shahar & Oren, Sigal, 2022. "Combinatorial auctions with endowment effect," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 255-273.
    8. Andreas C. Drichoutis & Stathis Klonaris & Georgia Papoutsi, 2016. "Do good things come in small packages? Willingness to pay for pomegranate wine and bottle size effects," Working Papers 2016-2, Agricultural University of Athens, Department Of Agricultural Economics.
    9. Pan, Yu & Pereira, Marco Henriques & Gomez-Gonzalez, Carlos & Dietl, Helmut M., 2025. "The superstar effect on perceived performance in professional football: An online experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    10. Maya Bar-Hillel & Alon Maharshak & Avital Moshinsky & Ruth Nofech, 2010. "Does a Rose by any other Name Smell as Sweet? A Cognitive Perspective on Poets and Poetry," Discussion Paper Series dp549, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    11. Robin Cross & Andrew J. Plantinga & Robert N. Stavins, 2011. "What Is the Value of Terroir?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 152-156, May.
    12. Almenberg, Johan & Dreber, Anna, 2011. "When Does the Price Affect the Taste? Results from a Wine Experiment," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 111-121, January.
    13. Zander, Katrin & Janssen, Meike, 2012. "Präferenzen Deutscher Öko-Konsumenten Für Wein," 52nd Annual Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, September 26-28, 2012 137175, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    14. Zander, K. & Janssen, M., . "Präferenzen deutscher Öko-Konsumenten für Wein," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 48.
    15. Kyle Peterson, 2014. "The Snob Effect of Red Wine: Estimating Consumer Bias in Experimental Blind Wine Tastings," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 59(1), pages 76-89, May.
    16. Garavaglia, Christian & Marcoz, Elena Maria, 2014. "Willingness to pay for P.D.O. certification: an empirical investigation," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 5(01), pages 1-12, July.
    17. Barbara Groele & Dominika Głąbska & Krystyna Gutkowska & Dominika Guzek, 2019. "Mother-Related Determinants of Children At-Home Fruit and Vegetable Dietary Patterns in a Polish National Sample," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-18, June.
    18. Robin Cross & Andrew J. Plantinga & Robert N. Stavins, 2025. "The Value of Terroir: Hedonic Estimation of Vineyard Sale Prices," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Economics of Environment, Climate Change, and Wine Selected Papers of Robert N Stavins Volume 3 (2011–2023), chapter 26, pages 689-704, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    19. Maya Bar-Hillel & Alon Maharshak & Avital Moshinsky & Ruth Nofech, 2012. "A rose by any other name: A social-cognitive perspective on poets and poetry," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 7(2), pages 149-164, March.
    20. Friberg, Richard & Paterson, Robert W. & Richardson, Andrew D., 2011. "Why is there a Home Bias? A Case Study of Wine," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 37-66, January.
    21. Rössel, Jörg & Beckert, Jens, 2012. "Quality classifications in competition: Price formation in the German wine market," MPIfG Discussion Paper 12/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    22. Enax Laura & Weber Bernd, 2015. "Marketing Placebo Effects – From Behavioral Effects to Behavior Change?," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 13(1), pages 15-31, January.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L15 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Information and Product Quality
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco
    • M30 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - General
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness

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