The wine delusion

and unreliable, they are also untrustworthy, says Goldstein (2008). To call them fake
wouldn't be an understatement.
Speaking of taste
So, how sensitive are our palates to the taste expectations of wine descriptions?
Consider this description by Robert Parker:
…is a real treat as this cuvee flirts with perfection. Already revealing some pink and amber at the edge, the
color is surprisingly evolved for a wine from this vintage. However, that’s deceptive as the aromatics offer
incredible aromas of dried flowers, beef blood, spice, figs, sweet black currants and kirsch, smoked game,
lavender, and sweaty but attractive saddle leather­like notes. Full­bodied and massively endowed, with
abundant silky tannins, it possesses the balance to age for 30+ years.’ (McFadden, 2014)
When an item promises multiple benefits, it is less convincing than items that
appear to do only one thing. Behavioural economists call this principle, ‘goal dilution’
(Sutherland, 2009). If only wine critics and writers knew about it. What could everyday
drinkers make of such flowery descriptions? If anything, they do one thing well: confuse. So
they’re actually doing a good job, if confusing people is the real intention. But if the real
intention is to help people match words with wines, they’re far from helpful. The American
economist Roman Weil ran tests to see if people could match words with wine. Weil (cited
in Berdik, 2012) gave subjects three glasses of wine, two of which were the same; along
with two descriptions written by the same critic. Simple as it may seem, only half of them
matched it right. They would have done just as well flipping a coin. Unlike the blunt signal of
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