There is nothing wrong with liking a cheap wine. But, by the same token, there is nothing wrong with liking (and paying for) an expensive one. I was a little disappointed in the Levitt article because it seemed to imply that unless you are a sommelier, drinking expensive wine is foolish. Maybe I am overreacting, but that is the way I took the article to be.
By the very same token, the same study could be applied to other fine arts (I think there is one by Becker for fine music). Just because most people don't get it doesn't mean that those who do (to whatever degree) are foolish. I bet a lot of people drink fine wine and listen to fine music not because they truly enjoy it, but rather because they are signalling "sophistication" or whatever quality they need to for whatever reason. So, instead of trying to learn what makes a wine better quality, they just buy an expensive one which is always a safer choice since there tends to be a correlation between price and quality of wine.
That being said, there are many fine cheap wines (Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand are tremendous values right now, for example, and they even come with screw tops; Arbor Mist is not, sorry JR, but there is nothing wrong with liking it). In fact, those that understand wine pride themselves on being able to find a cheap wine of good quality. That is the real challenge!
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There is nothing wrong with liking a cheap wine. But, by the same token, there is nothing wrong with liking (and paying for) an expensive one. I was a little disappointed in the Levitt article because it seemed to imply that unless you are a sommelier, drinking expensive wine is foolish. Maybe I am overreacting, but that is the way I took the article to be.
By the very same token, the same study could be applied to other fine arts (I think there is one by Becker for fine music). Just because most people don't get it doesn't mean that those who do (to whatever degree) are foolish. I bet a lot of people drink fine wine and listen to fine music not because they truly enjoy it, but rather because they are signalling "sophistication" or whatever quality they need to for whatever reason. So, instead of trying to learn what makes a wine better quality, they just buy an expensive one which is always a safer choice since there tends to be a correlation between price and quality of wine.
That being said, there are many fine cheap wines (Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand are tremendous values right now, for example, and they even come with screw tops; Arbor Mist is not, sorry JR, but there is nothing wrong with liking it). In fact, those that understand wine pride themselves on being able to find a cheap wine of good quality. That is the real challenge!
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