re: Freakonomics podcast on expensive wines: you're all full of s$%&

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You are being ticky tack with my response. Just because I threw the number 15 out there, you know I'm not talking about 14 vs 16. Come on. Don't be like that. That's stupid.

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I intentionally widened the spread around $15 (12 vs 18) so that you wouldn't cop out like you ended up doing anyway. the $18 bottle is 50% more expensive than the other one.

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Never said I was an expert by the way.

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Fine, you said you could "tell the difference". And you can't.

I'm definitely not as hard core as JT on this issue

I do think that the power of persuasion does play a very strong role though

And the differences in quality if they exist at all are probably smaller from one price range to the other than some might like to admit.

Is the 15 dollar bottle better than the 7 dollar bottle? Perhaps. But I doubt there is a huge difference. Same going from 15-40, 40-80 etc.. Is there a difference between a 2 dollar bottle from South Africa that you get free with a Keg at a gas station and a 15K bottle of wine from Spain? I'd say that the answer is probably a very obvious yes.

I think one of the problems is the assumption that $15-20 is not a good to very good wine. Just like many have said before, $85 wine does not make it excellent. It may be expensive due to marketing or overhead.

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Is the 15 dollar bottle better than the 7 dollar bottle? Perhaps. But I doubt there is a huge difference. Same going from 15-40, 40-80 etc.. Is there a difference between a 2 dollar bottle from South Africa that you get free with a Keg at a gas station and a 15K bottle of wine from Spain? I'd say that the answer is probably a very obvious yes.

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Well to be quite frank and not purposefully argumentative but actually contribute a thought to this discussion, I personally think its the exact opposite. I admit to never having a 15k bottle of wine though.

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It may be expensive due to marketing or overhead.

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Bud Light must be doing something wrong.

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Well to be quite frank and not purposefully argumentative but actually contribute a thought to this discussion, I personally think its the exact opposite. I admit to never having a 15k bottle of wine though.

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I'm not even sure what you were trying to say

You think that there is a huge gap in quality between each price range?

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I admit to never having a 15k bottle of wine though.

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It may be expensive due to marketing or overhead.

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Seems more likely it's driven by demand. Just like everything else. There is a demand for expensive wine regardless of quality.

I'm sure there are plenty of rich people that quietly admit to themselves that they don't see the big fricking deal about the 200 dollar bottles of wine they serve to their rich friends but they probably wouldn't say it out loud, lest they be judged by some pretentious notion that they have an inferior palate.

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a great beer is much harder to make than a great wine.

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I love beer, but outside of a few styles (lambic/gueuze) wine is much more difficult to produce.

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locally grown Arkansas wine. That shite was gross.

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They probably made it from fermented dingleberries...

As to the topic, this argument could be made for lots of things outside of wine. State of mind has a lot to do with life's small pleasures, I'll admit. When I was in Tuscany, the wine tasted better! I know lots of people who will swear a meal was fantastic just because it was in a high end restaurant and they paid through the nose for it.

I'll whole-heartedly agree that there are some very fine, inexpensive wines out there, and that lots of wine is overpriced, but if someone tells me I'm going to prefer a $60 bottle of Pinot in most case over a $12 bottle purely because my mind wants the higher priced bottle to taste better, I'm calling bullshite.