Money, Money, Money and Wine

Ever since I worked at Riley's Wines of the World in college and was wined (not dined - keep in mind this was college) by different distributors, i have had an appreciation for wine - mainly red. Fast forward to this weekend when I was in Napa, drinking little glass after little glass of expensive wine (pics here). I think the most expensive bottle i sampled was right around $90. Anyway on the heels of my Napa trip, I saw this news story about humans susceptibility to marketing and prices of wine.

Basically researchers found that people experience more pleasant sensations when drinking wine that they pay a premium for, which makes sense. There's tangible excitement around drinking an expensive wine, listening to crazy speakers or wearing priceless jewelry. What is interesting about this study is that they found an objective, measurable physical reaction unrelated to the quality of the wine. Something very complicated involving the medial orbitofrontal cortex and levels of oxygen that vary based on the price you paid for the wine (and presumably other products) not the wine itself. But still, they measured it and like it or not, people experienced varying degrees of pleasure drinking the same bottle of wine solely depending on its price.

So, i spent $50 on a bottle of wine in Napa. Now when i drink it, I'm going to have to live with the fact that according to these guys from Stanford the pleasure of that experience is going to be somewhat related to the dollars I spent. That's a bit depressing to think about. sigh.