Wine is one of the few food products where the choices are endless. There is so much to consider: Grape variety, region, price — um label design…C’mon, admit it — you’ve purchased a bottle purely based on the label…it looked expensive or familiar or was so ugly you couldn’t resist the gag…But can a label really help guide you to purchase a bottle whose wine you will really enjoy and happily drink again? Or is the wine label design for distinction only … graphics to help the wine compete with the other bottles surrounding it? How many people don’t know a thing about wine, except they love to drink it? So when planning our latest taste test, we wondered “how do those people select a bottle of wine?
Three rules we followed for our blind taste test series: 1. 20 dollar limit. 2. only label must influence purchase. 3 red wine.
Once the bottles were assembled, all participants filled out a simple questionare describing their individual reactions toward each label’s aesthetics. The bottles were then covered and 3 were randomly selected for the first blind tasting.
The bottle that I bought was called REVOLUTION (a french table red) The aesthetics reminded me of the great Julian Schnabel movie with Javier Bardem “Before Night Falls”. Imagine, me and Mr. Bourdain, drinking the Revolution with other artists who joined Castro’s rebels. We would gather and perform, make more wine, recite poetry and go to jail, all in the name of art and free expression! I just couldn’t resist. And it was 19 bucks… so it must be a sure thing. I could already taste the delicious combination of tropical dreams, sexy nightmares and rebellion.
After the reveal ..I was shocked that the wine that NO ONE (including me) liked the taste of or would buy was my sweet Revolution! I pleaded with everyone “por favor, have another taste!” I tried to seduce the group with my purchase rationale and the price point…Nada. We so wanted to like it, but sorry..The revolution will not be televised.
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