Fine study about the brain and wine preference in today’s paper. Like we didn’t know that the average American consumer is obsessed with luxury and that more expensive always equals better in this country?

Please. Had the participants been schooled in blind tasting they would’ve been able to say, which much ease, “Uh, these are the same wine.”

If they really wanted to mess with people, they should’ve decanted the $10 wine, let it breathe, served it an optimal temperature or some other trick we all use to make a $10 taste like a $50 one.

I’d go as far as to say that people familiar with wine do everything to promote and push quality value bottles. Look at what Cameron Hughes is doing at Costco. Look at Joel Gotts‘ wines. Or Four Bears Winery.

Just last week, I sat down with Four Bears winemaker Sean Minor and tasted through his portfolio. Not only is his Cabernet Sauvignon among my picks for the best Napa Cabs under $40 (yes, they DO exist) but his Sauvignon Blanc, made from Dry Creek Valley fruit, was a sophisticated example of this often lean wine, and with an easy price tag to boot.

For $13 a bottle, I got an almost creamy entry (Minor ferments 15 percent of his Sauvignon Blanc in new oak) followed by all the fig, melon and mango you come to expect from this varietal.

The fact is that warehouse wineries and micro crush facilities are making it increasingly possible for people to make high quality wines without the inflated price tags. It really is a whole New World.