AIM: To determine whether pink wine is just red and white wine mixed together.
APPARATUS: Glasses. Pen. Paper. Sample of food scientists.
INGREDIENTS: One bottle each of cheap red, white and pink wine.
METHOD: A glassful of pink wine was poured, and then red and white wine were mixed together until something that looked like the pink wine was achieved. The proportions of this were approx 1 part red to 3 parts white.
A glass with an equal mix of white and red was also prepared. We did nothing with this, except I think Pete may have ended up drinking it. (At the back of my mind making this third there may have been the thought that the white and red would magically make each other disappear, as they do if you spill red wine on a carpet. To test this properly, though, we would have needed a fourth glass of red wine and some salt. But Tim doesn’t have any salt.)
The two glasses were marked so I could tell which was which. The food scientists were then called in one by one to taste both. They had to then do two things:
– give a mark out of 10 to each wine.
– indicate which they thought was the real pink wine.
RESULTS: Exactly the same number of scientists picked each wine as the correct one, as seen graphically here:
With the exception of Marianna, every single scientist either gave both wines the same mark or gave a higher mark to the wine they thought was the real one. People who were wrong detected on average a much greater difference in quality (Pete in particular was very emphatic on this.)
The mix of red and white was liked more than the real pink wine (see chart below).
CONCLUSIONS:
1. There is NO scientific difference between pink wine and mixed red and white wine.
2. Except that the fake pink wine is actually NICER.
3. Most people are wine ROCKISTS and believe that a ‘real’ wine will likely be nicer than a ‘fake’ one.
4. The more WRONG about wine people are, the more OPINIONATED they will be.
5. Ergo, DON’T BOTHER buying pink wine again, just pour unused red and white wine in together.
(5a. Unless you’re buying it at POPTIMISM on Friday week.)