The (Culinary) Power of Suggestion

Published on Friday, August 17, 2007, by James Norton / Edit Post

The science geniuses over at Cornell University have quantified what we’ve always known in our hearts: Most fancy-wine drinkers are suckers. In “Key to Good Cooking: Trickery,” ABC News reports that a bottle of Charles Shaw wine, passed off as fine wine from either North Dakota or California, tasted radically different to the diners who tried it.

Those who thought the wine was from North Dakota (the last state to get a winery) reported a low satisfaction with the meal as a whole and the wine specifically. Those who thought the wine was from California reported having a much better meal experience.

‘We found that people who were drinking the California wine stayed about 12 minutes longer,’ [Cornell professor Brian] Wansink said. ‘They ate more of their meal. They rated the food and wine as being very tasty, and they were more likely to make a reservation to return within the next three months.’

‘The eating wasn’t quite so special for the people served the North Dakota wine,’ Wansink added. ‘They ate faster. They left more food on their plates. They rated both the food and the wine as not tasting as good. And they were less likely to make reservations to come back.’

Yet, the only difference was the false labels.

This is highly reminiscent of the recent Stanford study that demonstrated that kids think everything tastes better when it’s in McDonald’s packaging.

And it also echoes a humiliating experience from my college days, wherein a roommate challenged me to discern my favorite vodka (top-shelf Belvedere) from good old Smirnoff. It was going to be a no-brainer, I figured. My track record? Four out of six shots … guessed wrong.

These days, I use a Brita filter to quadruple-filter Kamchatka vodka ($11 for 1.75 liters). It takes a little work, but the stuff is indistinguishable from top-shelf.

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POST A COMMENT |7 Comments

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  • There are many culinary institutes that provide flexibility in day and night scheduling of their chef classes to their students. Their curriculum includes all the culinary courses related to kitchen. Some schools also provide internship and placement to their students.

    http://www.culinaryschoolsprograms.com/

  • certainly some emperors new clothes with wine but terroir(soil,irrigation,altitude,weather etc.) grape variety,processing are important and yield infinite variety. occasion is probably most important.sometimes i drink too much but at others i pity abstainers

  • all i know?

    is that if I host a houseparty, I decant a few massive bottles of a screw-top (oddly, the best alternative to stripping cork...) what we like to call "vin ordinaire" or BlueBerry's "Plonk de Plonk" & there is enough for both the meal, the Cook & the Guests...
    & its affordable. I've found after 3 glasses, everybody's just "hey, I'm having a great time... "
    'nuff said, I've never heard...+READ

    all i know?

    is that if I host a houseparty, I decant a few massive bottles of a screw-top (oddly, the best alternative to stripping cork...) what we like to call "vin ordinaire" or BlueBerry's "Plonk de Plonk" & there is enough for both the meal, the Cook & the Guests...
    & its affordable. I've found after 3 glasses, everybody's just "hey, I'm having a great time... "
    'nuff said, I've never heard anyone say anything about the wine short of, "I love the frozen grapes!" & "hey you're right, it *does* just taste good."


    just say'n...
    poured liberally with a great meal?
    nobody cares about the pedigree & label.



    Spread Love...
    ... but wear the Glove!

    BlueBerry Pick'n
    can be found @
    ThisCanadian

    "Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"-COLLAPSE

  • i always found the wine tasting thing was a crock too yes swish the wine in your mouth like mouthwash and some guy/girl says taste the smoky oak notes and the dummies go OH YES OH YES the only problem is that the wine was made in steel vats and aged in glass bottles where did the oakey notes come from either the power of suggestion or the heads of the wine tasters are made of wood


    also note...+READ

    i always found the wine tasting thing was a crock too yes swish the wine in your mouth like mouthwash and some guy/girl says taste the smoky oak notes and the dummies go OH YES OH YES the only problem is that the wine was made in steel vats and aged in glass bottles where did the oakey notes come from either the power of suggestion or the heads of the wine tasters are made of wood


    also note that alchohol numbs taste buds so in reality you could be hiding the taste of bad food-COLLAPSE

  • beevod...have you ever heard of Trockenbeerenauslese wine? It's made from grapes that have been left on the vine after the regular harvest, affected by a condition named noble rot, then slowly and carefully hand-picked through the fall, one by one. Try getting that for $10.

  • I definitely think that there is wine worth more than $10 a bottle. However, I also think that people who are easily convinced that quality= price + origin get ripped off quite a bit.

    Psychological research has always demonstrated that expectations and the drinker's mood are intimately tied to drinking alcohol. There is a classic study in which people felt and acted drunk even though they didn't...+READ

    I definitely think that there is wine worth more than $10 a bottle. However, I also think that people who are easily convinced that quality= price + origin get ripped off quite a bit.

    Psychological research has always demonstrated that expectations and the drinker's mood are intimately tied to drinking alcohol. There is a classic study in which people felt and acted drunk even though they didn't have any alcohol just because they *expected* to be drunk. These subjects, as demonstrated by staying longer and enjoying the experience more, obviously felt more indulged and that made them happier and more content.

    I find these kinds of studies fascinating - please post more of them if you find them!-COLLAPSE

  • The wine hasn't been built that's worth more than $10 a bottle. Anything above that is pretension.