Quick: Which sounds yummier, a glass of chilled 2009 Voldemortefreude Riesling, or perhaps a fruity Distressed Cat Riesling of the same vintage? If you chose Cat over Voldemort, congratulations, you’re probably not drinking with the other people from a new study who reported “liking the taste of the wine better if it was associated with a difficult to pronounce winery name.” Wordiness, apparently, also comes with a “$2 increase in willingness to pay” for wine, reports NPR, and it gets worse: Educated wine snobs were among those fooled into equating fancy label names with better taste. Like, OMG. Of course, we already knew wine tastes better if the sipper thinks it’s expensive and dilettantes are highly susceptible to colorful advertising. Can’t we all just get a little bit drunk now? [The Salt/NPR]
