Tenet #10 – Price Is Important!

It simply cannot be said enough: When it comes to wine, price does not equal quality.

We’ve touched on this in a number of our other tenets, but we highlight it here as well because it simply cannot be said enough. When it comes to wine, price does not equal quality. There’s nothing magical about our $20 limit, but it’s silly to not bring price into the equation when considering a wine.

Take for example, these two wines, listed side by side at a major wine retailer’s website.

Very similar scores, yet vastly different prices! (See this article for an explanation of how our rating system accounts for these price differences.)

Most of us are rational human beings who want to get our money’s worth out of our purchases. Too many people have allowed themselves to be convinced that price equals quality, which is exactly what most of the wine industry wants you to think. As we discussed in Tenet #4, studies have shown again and again that it simply does not, and this is really what being a Reverse Wine Snob is all about — breaking the price-equals-quality equation and judging wine based on your own preferences.

On a side note, we’ve found that breaking the high price equals high quality fallacy can be a powerful tactic not just in wine but in other things as well. By flipping this equation on its head you begin to see things in a whole new light, and you also begin to see through the tactics marketers use to try to convince you otherwise. It’s a powerful tool to stay on budget in a world of marketers who want anything but that.

Find our complete Ten Tenets of Reverse Wine Snobbery in summary form here with links to each.