Cheap vs. expensive- Can Winer Things Tell?

The $11 Wine That Shocked Us!

Can you taste if a wine is 4x the price of another? What about 15x the price?

In my first year of wine drinking, I used to ask everyone the question, “do you think a $200 wine tastes much better than a $50 wine?” (most people responded no, but one person told me a $1,000 bottle is probably ethereal and transcendent). So I wanted to challenge Winer Things: if all labels disappeared, would we have any idea which bottle was the expensive one?

The tasting was designed as a walkaround with 21 wines, ten whites and eleven reds. Four expensive bottles hidden among a sea of budget wines ($20 and under). I handed out four fake $100 bills and instructed everyone to taste everything blind and decide which four wines deserved their bills.

Building the lineup

The lineup was intentionally stacked against our assumptions.

The white flight included one premium bottle—the 2023 Château Montelena Napa Chardonnay ($75)—surrounded by wines that all cost under $20. Preparing for the tasting, I wanted to find the cheapest wines I could possibly buy, ideally something close to $1. In a stroke of luck, I happened across a box of one euro wines that a downtown Lisbon wine shop was selling, when we visited two months ago. It was fate and I brought home two bottles of 2003 and 2004 Portugese Brancos. Now looking back on it, these two wines took up precious space that I would have allocated to white port, our new obsession. Alas…

The red flight was split between Old World and New World wines. The Old World lineup featured one $100 bottle, Bibi Graetz Testamatta (donated by Winer Things member Mark), mixed in with wines costing $18 or less. The New World flight contained the heavy hitters, including a $70 Caymus and the night's most expensive wine: a $300 Joseph Phelps Insignia 2006 (donated by Winer Things member, Young).

Everything was foiled, numbered, and presented completely blind.

The surprises

The white wines produced the biggest shock of the night. The clear winner wasn't the $75 Château Montelena, it was a $11 Passaros Alvarinho 2025, a Vinho Verde from Portugal with its high acidity, and notes of green apple and honeydew melon. Four people chose it as the expensive white wine. The runner-ups, each receiving three votes, were the $75 Château Montelena and Medalla Real Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc... which costs only $10.

The Old World reds delivered another upset.

The group's favorite expensive "impostor" was La Purísima Monastrell 2023 from Spain—a $9 bottle that received seven votes as one of the premium wines, beating out the $100 Bibi Graetz Toscana 2018, which received a 100 point score from Decanter. By this point we were convinced nobody could taste price.

Then came the New World reds.

Unlike the previous flights, the room was on point. The $300 Joseph Phelps Insignia received eleven votes, making it by far the easiest expensive wine to identify all night. The $70 Caymus followed behind with four votes, proving that, at least in this flight, experience-and price-did seem to show.

The €1 experiment

Unfortunately, my dream of discovering the world's greatest bargain wine didn't materialize. Both of the €1 Portuguese wines were disgusting! They were very dry, no fruit, bitter, bad aftertaste and generally over the hill. Both were immediately identifiable by their aged honey golden color.

To be fair, they were from 2003 and 2004, and had spent 20+ years in a hot wine shop lost in a back room. Still, it was worth the experiment, and I was certainly entertained.

More than just the wine

As much fun as the results were, the best part of the evening was not just the tasting itself. This event marked three years of Winer Things.

We spent the night catching up, debating wines, and reminiscing about some of our favorite tastings over the years—from New Jersey vs. France, Mark’s Iberian Peninsula and Zinfandel tastings, to Château Winer Things (complete with crocheted berets), a White Bordeaux tasting, our annual sparkling tastings and to a Winer Thing’s feature in Grape Collective by legendary wine writers John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter.

Some people in the room had been there from the very beginning three years ago and others were attending their very first Winer Things event. Watching new members jump right into the discussions while longtime members shared stories from past tastings was a reminder of what this group has really become. The wine gives us something to gather around, but it's the conversations and friendships that keep everyone coming back..

So...can you taste price?

I am always hoping the answer will be NO. But upon reflection, perhaps the Insignia won out with it’s careful 20 year cellaring, high quality grapes, good vintage, and oak aging. The Caymus showcased a fruit-forward and jammy nose and palate, which usually marks a well-liked wine.

But the white wines and Old World reds told a different story. Some of the night's biggest winners cost less than $10, while one of the most respected Chardonnays in America couldn't separate itself from bottles costing a fraction of the price.

As this tasting reminded us, it doesn't guarantee you'll know which bottle is the expensive one.

Sometimes, a $9 bottle is all it takes to fool an entire room.