(York, England) I arrived here from Tuscany today with my daughter Isabel at her mom’s house, and I came across a story in the Daily Mail that said, “Britons can’t tell the difference between a fine wine and plonk.”
The story begins saying that “spending more than £5 ($8) on a bottle wine is a waste of time, researchers say.” Apparently most people cannot tell the difference between the cheapest “supermarket plonk” and quality wines that cost up to £30 ($48.80). The article used 578 people in Edinburgh for the study, and only half of the time could they tell the difference between the expensive or cheap wine.
I am not sure what this proves, and I don’t think Scotland is the best place for deciding if people can tell the difference between an expensive wine and a cheap wine. It’s like asking the inhabitants of Paris if they can tell the difference between cheap and expensive whisky.
Moreover, I have found the opposite in most cases. With nine out of 10 people I have served two wines – one much more expensive and famous than the other – the top wine is always the favorite. And I do blind tests like this for fun at dinner at home on numerous occasions.
But then again, I guess we are not average drinkers – we are wine lovers.
I'm very confident I could tell plonk from a well made wine. I'm equally confident that I could NOT easily tell a mediocre, cheap Scotch from a great Scotch. I don't drink the stuff, so it all smells like smoke and alcohol to me. I would imagine someone that didn't drink wine, might be equally perplexed
My question is I have never drank a real expensive bottle of wine, is it that much superior to the $24-50 bottles I dirnk? Compared to the differnce between a $7 bottle and a $35 one.
Of course, the Daily Mail is a very credible publication. ( ;
So Parisians can't judge whisky? Why? And why shouldn't Scots - who do, admittedly, have many failings - judge wine?
Can you only judge the quality of products which come from your birthplace?
In which case, Mr Suckling, you may be arguing yourself out of a role in Bordeaux...