The most expensive is a 2011 Honig cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley.

最貴的是納帕山谷的 2011 年蜂寧酒莊卡本內蘇維農紅酒。

Wine Spectator magazine rated it Outstanding.

Wine Spectator 雜誌給予它十分傑出的評價。

And it cost 5 times more than the one on the right. So does it taste 5 times better?

而它比右邊這瓶的價格高出五倍。所以它的味道也會好喝五倍嗎？

19 Vox staffers tasted and rated each of the wines, and almost half of them correctly identified the most expensive one.

19 名 Vox 員工品嚐並評比了這三杯葡萄酒，且有超過一半的人正確地辨識出最貴的那一杯。

But that's not because they liked it more.

但並不是因為他們比較喜歡它。

"Very nuanced. Complex. Didn't enjoy it."

「很細緻複雜的味道，我不喜歡。」

Their average ratings for the cheapest and most expensive wine, they were actually the same.

他們給予最便宜和最昂貴葡萄酒的平均評價其實是相同的。

"I'm glad I have cheap taste. It's gonna make my life really easy."

「我很慶幸我的味覺不靈敏，這樣我的人生會快樂很多。」

And this is consistent with a 2008 study that compiled 6,000 blind tastings in the United States.

這與 2008 年一份在美國蒐集了 6000 份盲測的研究結果相同。

It found that unless they had undergone wine training, people didn't actually prefer the taste of the expensive wines.

這份研究指出除非有經過專業的葡萄酒訓練，人們其實不會真的喜歡昂貴葡萄酒的味道。

In fact they enjoyed them slightly less.

實際上人們對於它的喜歡程度略低。

"Yeah, that's really not very pleasant."

「嗯，這味道真的不是很討喜。」

There seems to be something about wine that can make us feel a bit lost.

葡萄酒的世界似乎會讓我們感到困惑。

"That has sort of an oaky afterbirth."

「這個有木質的尾韻。」

That's probably why a single movie can move the whole wine market.

這也是為什麼僅僅一部電影足以動搖整個葡萄酒市場。

"That's tasty." "That's 100% pinot noir. Single vineyard. They don't even make it anymore."

「太美味了，這是最純正的黑比諾，單一產區，而且已經停產了。」

After Sideways was released, sales of Pinot Noir jumped compared to other red wines, and sales of merlot?

自從電影《尋找新方向》上映後黑比諾的銷售量遠遠超過其他葡萄酒，而梅洛紅酒的銷售量呢？

"I'm not drinking any f*cking merlot." They slowed down.

因為一句「我才不喝該死的梅洛。」而下降。

But who decides what good wine is? There are professional judges that give medals at competitions, but they're really inconsistent.

到底是誰決定葡萄酒的好壞呢？其實是有專業評審在葡萄酒競賽中給予獎牌，但他們的標準真的很不一致。

One statistician showed that most wines that received the highest score in one competition also got the lowest score in another.

一位統計學家表示，大多數在一場比賽中得分最高的葡萄酒在另一場比賽中得分最低。

This is the distribution of gold medals that you would expect if they were awarded by random chance.

這是一張你會覺得其實是被隨機分配的金牌。

It looks a lot like the actual distribution of gold medals in US wine competitions.

它就像美國葡萄酒比賽中的金牌的實際分配方式。

That suggests judges often disagree with each other. But it gets worse: they often disagree with themselves.

評審們其實彼此間意見都不同，更慘的是他們連自己的意見都捉摸不定。

When surreptitiously given the same wine 3 times, only 1 in 10 of the judges at the California State Fair wine competition consistently awarded it the same medal.

我們偷偷送了三次同款的葡萄酒至美國加州葡萄酒競賽，十位中只有一位評審始終如一給予一樣的評價。

Wine ratings published in magazines can be all over the map too.

葡萄酒在雜誌中的評比也是參差不齊的。

Here's how two top critics described the same wine in 2004.

這裡是兩位知名評論家在 2004 年對於同一支葡萄酒的評論。

"A brilliant effort", "completely unappetizing", "a wine of sublime richness", "overripe aromas", "remarkable freshness and definition", "more reminiscent of a late-harvest zinfandel than a red bordeaux."

「很棒的一支作品。」、「完全難以入口。」、「完美口感的葡萄酒。」、「過熟的香氣。」「傑出的新鮮度、層次分明。」、「較像是後期採收的仙粉黛而非紅波爾多。」

One problem is that not all of the wine publications require their tasters to be blind to the price and to the brand.

這裡出現一個問題，並不是所有葡萄酒期刊都是以盲測來進行測試。

And that matters because people can't seem to avoid associating price with quality.

盲測是很重要的，因為人們似乎總將價錢與品質混為一談。

One experiment in Australia showed that people rated the same wine higher when they thought it was $53 rather than $16 or $6.

在澳洲進行的一項實驗顯示，當人們認為葡萄酒價格是 53 美元而不是 16 或 6 美元時，人們對這種葡萄酒的評價會更高。

But get this-the experimenters had actually made that wine objectively worse by adding tartaric acid.

但是其實實驗者為了搞砸那瓶紅酒，還特別添加了酒石酸。

It didn't matter-the price tag overwhelmed their own taste buds.

這根本沒什麼影響，因為價格仍凌駕於他們的味覺之上。

In another study, scientists scanned the brains of people tasting wines that they thought were either $10 or $90.

在另一項研究中，科學家們分別掃描了品嚐 10 元及 90 元葡萄酒人們的大腦。

In reality, it was the same wine, but when they thought it was expensive, their brains showed more activity in a region associated with pleasant tastes and smells.

但事實上，他們喝的是同一種葡萄酒但如果品嚐者認為他們喝的是比較昂貴的，大腦中那塊與好味覺及氣味連結的區域就會特別活躍。

So expensive wines may actually taste better after all, as long as you know that they're expensive.

所以昂貴的葡萄酒也許會真的嚐起來比較好喝，前提是如果你知道它很昂貴的話。

"You can feel free to finish it if you want." "I'll take the expensive one."

「喝完也沒關係喔！」「那我拿貴的那杯。」