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

Robin Goldstein (robin@fearlesscritic.com), Johan Almenberg, Anna Dreber, John W. Emerson (john.emerson@yale.edu), Alexis Herschkowitsch (alexis@fearlesscritic.com) and Jacob Katz (jekatz3@hotmail.com)
Additional contact information
Robin Goldstein: Fearless Critic Media, Postal: Fearless Critic Media, 2011B Bouldin Avenue, Austin TX 78704, USA
John W. Emerson: Yale University, Postal: Department of Statistics , Yale University , P.O. Box 208290 , New Haven CT 06520-8290, http://www.stat.yale.edu/~jay/
Alexis Herschkowitsch: Fearless Critic Media, Postal: Fearless Critic Media, 2011B Bouldin Avenue, Austin TX 78704, USA
Jacob Katz: Fearless Critic Media, Postal: Fearless Critic Media, 2011B Bouldin Avenue, Austin TX 78704, USA

No 700, SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance from Stockholm School of Economics

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 positive, or at any rate non-negative, correlation. 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 even further. Our results indicate that both the prices of wines and wine recommendations by experts may be poor guides for non-expert wine consumers.

Keywords: Wine; price/quality relation; expertise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L15 L66 M30 Q13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 11 pages
Date: 2008-04-16, Revised 2008-04-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (20)

Published in Journal of Wine Economics, 2008, pages 1-9.

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Related works:
Journal Article: Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better? Evidence from a Large Sample of Blind Tastings* (2008)
Working Paper: DO MORE EXPENSIVE WINES TASTE BETTER? EVIDENCE FROM A LARGE SAMPLE OF BLIND TASTINGS (2008)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:hastef:0700

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