Champagne: Are my friends' tastes the right ones ?
If wine and champagne are drinks that can be enjoyed in a moment of sharing and relaxation, the fact remains that a sharing champagne must also be a champagne of the heart. If tastes and colors cannot be discussed, should we trust our eyes closed to the advice and recommendations of the self-proclaimed expert, of the one who has read a few newspapers, visited a few estates and emptied a few flutes? It is far from obvious and choosing your champagne remains a complex adventure. On the one hand, we know that we all tend to want to convince others that what we liked is good, whether it is an album, a film, a restaurant and of course a wine or a champagne. Behind a champagne hides a terroir, a style and the work of a man. A personality that will therefore appear in the glass one way or another. And for a personality to be interesting, it must have relief, and therefore divide.
Sparkling Wine The more expensive, the better !
A study published in 2008 showed that consumers appreciate a wine the more the more expensive it is. To conduct this study, twenty people aged between 21 and 30 tasted 5 wines. They were asked to rate the wines on a scale of 1 to 6. Their brain was observed during tasting by an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine which detected activated areas of the brain. Each of the cuvées tasted was identified not by its name or its appellation, but by its selling price. To carry out the experiment, the researchers bought not 5 different bottles, but only 3. The cheapest was presented with its real price ($ 5) and a second time with a fictitious price representing an increase of 800% ( $ 45). The second bottle was worth $ 35, finally the third bottle was also presented twice. Once under its actual price of $ 90, and once priced at $ 10. The researchers then studied the scores the tasters gave to the wines, and found that they followed the price scale exactly. The $ 5 wine was much more popular with tasters when it was supposed to be worth $ 45 and conversely the $ 90 grand wine was rated mediocre when it sold under the $ 10 label. The study also showed that an area of the orbito-frontal cortex associated with sensory pleasure was more irrigated when the tester had the $ 90 wine in the mouth rather than when tasting the $ 10 wine, when it was … Of the same wine. Similar studies have shown the power of conviction, with medications that work better in people who already believe they work rather than in people who are skeptical.
And now what champagne do we taste ?
If you cannot trust your own assessment, biased by the price, the color of the label or the opinion of your neighbor, how do you choose your champagne? Ideally, you should taste several cuvées at the same time, in a neutral environment, and blind. Without being able to meet the conditions, the best thing is to trust the champagne guide, but choosing the right one!