I know that I’ve written fairly recently about the effect that your surroundings can have on how you perceive a particular wine, but this can also include your own personal emotions at the time. For example, are you having a good time, is it a special occasion, are you in good company? These subliminal factors will all play a part in your overall enjoyment and recollection.

However, one factor that is not quite so obvious is the price that you pay for your bottle. It’s all to do with the power of suggestion, and how you anticipate the bottle should taste more than how it actually does taste. It’s purely psychological, in the same way that a placebo can trick a patient into believing that he or she is taking a drug that they’re actually not. Now, I am not suggesting for one second that you can serve a glass of water in place of your albariño hoping that no one will notice, but apparently you could make it appear to taste better if you tell your fellow drinkers that it’s a really expensive wine.

A study at Stanford business school proved that some consumers believed a $45 dollar bottle to be better than a $5 bottle, even though it was actually the same wine! To cut a long story short, we trick the brain into believing that the expensive bottle should taste better, and as a result our pleasure receptors apparently become more active.

Perhaps the same is true with the power of marketing, when we believe that our favourite brand really does taste better than the cheaper own label brand – it’s possibly all just a trick of the brain…..

Personally, I have always been a great believer in the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’, and I can honestly assure our customers that our Castro Martin albariños really do represent great value for money. Or perhaps they would they taste twice as good if I doubled the price?

I know that I’ve written fairly recently about the effect that your surroundings can have on how you perceive a particular wine, but this can also include your own personal emotions at the time. For example, are you having a good time, is it a special occasion, are you in good company? These subliminal factors will all play a part in your overall enjoyment and recollection.

However, one factor that is not quite so obvious is the price that you pay for your bottle. It’s all to do with the power of suggestion, and how you anticipate the bottle should taste more than how it actually does taste. It’s purely psychological, in the same way that a placebo can trick a patient into believing that he or she is taking a drug that they’re actually not. Now, I am not suggesting for one second that you can serve a glass of water in place of your albariño hoping that no one will notice, but apparently you could make it appear to taste better if you tell your fellow drinkers that it’s a really expensive wine.

A study at Stanford business school proved that some consumers believed a $45 dollar bottle to be better than a $5 bottle, even though it was actually the same wine! To cut a long story short, we trick the brain into believing that the expensive bottle should taste better, and as a result our pleasure receptors apparently become more active.

Perhaps the same is true with the power of marketing, when we believe that our favourite brand really does taste better than the cheaper own label brand – it’s possibly all just a trick of the brain…..

Personally, I have always been a great believer in the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’, and I can honestly assure our customers that our Castro Martin albariños really do represent great value for money. Or perhaps they would they taste twice as good if I doubled the price?