Wine psychology and business

[AZMDTed]

http://blog.priceonomics.com/post/46618070248/the-price-of-wine

Lately I've found myself searching for wine movies, documentaries and articles. This past week I've watched Red Obsession, Somm, and A Year in Burgandy. Tonight will be a Year in Champagne. All were good and I learned something from all of them. After watching Red Obsession I started googling and found the article linked above.

The article is by Alex Mayyasi, whom I don't know. But the story is fascinating to me. It includes quite about wine and business, but then gets into what I call the psychology of wine taste and price. It really brings the topics from Somm (about people competing for Master Sommelier designation and absolutely ridiculous descriptions of wine, IMHO) and Red Obsession (about the influence of the newly rich Chinese market on Bordeaux prices) all together.

I used to be a professional photographer in my spare time. As I did everything from deciding what to capture, to capture, manipulation, printing and selling at Art Shows I was wholly responsible for my success or failure. In all of that I spent a lot of time on the psychology of an art buyer, and specifically what made someone part with their hard earned money for a photograph. In short I was fascinated with the psychology of selling something that by itself has little tangible value. This article addresses many of those same questions, but in the context of wine.

For all of us who want to know how our wine stacks up against the 'good stuff' this should give you confidence. If nothing else you may learn to get the fanciest label you can, a nice bottle, a nice foil for the bottle, and then imply that it's a $65 boutique vineyard wine of a good vintage and everyone will honestly believe it's the best wine they've ever tasted

I searched the site for the article and didn't see it discussed so I thought I'd post it. I hope you find it as interesting as I do.

Ted

 

[ibglowin]

Fantastic article. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Matty_Kay]

Very cool article. I enjoy people's reactions when they drink my wine and I tell them it was made and aged in our wine cellar, aka our laundry room in the basement

 

[BernardSmith]

I guess we all tend to taste what we expect to taste and expect to taste what we believe we have paid for and have paid for stuff based on the story that people spin through words and images. But that applies to just about everything, I think. Doesn't it?

 

[JimmyT]

Very interesting. Even though all my friends and family say they "like" most of my wines, maybe I should actually start making labels and put shrink capsules on them to make everyone "love" them lol!

 

[salcoco]

the author should also use the adage where by wine tasting was done on samples of the same wine but tasters were told the price of the wines varied from $5 to $50. everyone thought the $50 wine was the best yet there were all the same.

JimmyT there is a lot of truth in your comment. Many wines are purchased because of the label.

 

[Double Daylo]

Its scary how true alot of this is. I watched a video once where they took an expensive bottle and poured it in the glass. Then a cheap bottle and threw it in a blender to air it out. Blind taste test in a grocery store so no real wine testers. But over half chose the cheap blended bottle.

 

[HillPeople]

Add "Bottle Shock" to your list.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy5rkvYCVIg[/ame]

 

[AZMDTed]

Add "Bottle Shock" to your list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy5rkvYCVIg

Thanks, I did watch it. I really enjoyed it. I found it by accident when I was trying to explain bottle shock to my wife.

 

[heatherd]

Watched Somm and it was great!

 

[terrymck]

If any of you get Esquire network there is a show called Uncorked. Some of the same people who were in SOMM but it follows 5 NYKers who are competing for Master Sommelier.

 

[Brian55]

"Blood into wine" is quite entertaining.

 

[Boatboy24]

Add "Bottle Shock" to your list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy5rkvYCVIg

Is it on Netflix?

 

[AZMDTed]

Is it on Netflix?

Yes, that's where I watched it. Very enjoyable movie.

 

[JimmyT]

Just watched it a few weeks back. Loved the soundtracks! I've been sucking up everything I could watch that's wine related as well. Part of the obsession I guess [emoji16]

 

[Boatboy24]

Yes, that's where I watched it. Very enjoyable movie.

I've been off of Netflix for several years because I have Amazon Prime. It may be time to just suck it up and pay for both. There's enough unique content on both that I guess it makes sense.