A. All wines are meaningfully different, especially to experts, and there is a direct correlation between price and quality, so get out of my face, you loutish brute.
B. All wine is basically the same, and any differences are all about marketing, so clam up, elitist snob.
The studies do show the value of expectations (true or false) in aesthetic judgments like winemaking (or art, or literature, or food, or sex, or …). When told there is a difference, we will strain to find one, especially one that lines up with our expectations. Thus outlying results like people apparently unable to tell the blinded difference between a red wine and a white wine. We (correctly) expect them to taste different (because we do), and thus in the extreme manufacture the difference (or ignore the lack of difference) when presented that expected situation.
On the other hand, we can be surprised by something. Bad buzz can kill a movie overall — but there are plenty of movies that were panned by the critics or the public that I personally enjoyed (and vice-versa). "There's no accounting for tastes" is a factor here, but expectations aren't the only thing that affect perceived quality or difference.
That all said, quality can have a very loose correlation with cost. There are certainly aspects of wine prices that are driven by rarity, and by production prices as well (land in Napa is a lot more expensive to acquire and work than it is in Temecula, or the Grand Valley, or Oklahoma). And, yes, a lot of it is driven by marketing, which creates an total package. (One might question whether marketing and the overall meta-experience are not legitimate aspects of the product. My hotel room in Barstow is not that much different from my hotel room in Florence — does that mean they will or should cost exactly the same? A Porsche 911 isn't going to get me to the office any faster or arguably more comfortably than my Subaru, but that doesn't mean I expect the same sticker price or experience.) There are very enjoyable $10 bottles of wine, and $100 bottles of wine that aren't as good. There are also $100 bottles of wine that are excellent — but not "ten times as good" (whatever that might mean) as a $10 bottle.
Similarly, even if a $5 Stouffer's lasagna can pass at a fancy restaurant, that doesn't mean that there's no difference between Stouffer's lasagna and what, say, my wife would make. I promise you.
So … find what you like. Experiment. Consider trying something a bit pricier at times to see if you think it's worth it. Don't let the experts dictate your taste, but don't discard their advice as meaningless, either. Avoid false elitism and false egalitarianism alike. And recall Mark Twain's comment, "It is not best that we should all think alike; it is differences of opinion that make horse races."
Why We Can’t Tell Good Wine From Bad
The Misconception: Wine is a complicated elixir, full of subtle flavors only an expert can truly distinguish, and experienced tasters are impervious to deception.
I recommend a wine club for anyone really looking to develop a discerning rate for wine. They will mix and match wines from different regions, years, grapes, blends, and so on. You can get quite a variety and try to tell them apart. I'd say, for me, that except for a very few bottles, most wines seem to be 'pretty good'. I can count on one hand the number of times I've had wine that was so good I couldn't get enough or so bad I poured the bottle out. With that in mind, i rarely pick up a bottle of wine over $15. It's just going to be pretty good anyway.
We have a mix. We drink a lot of $10-15 wine on a regular basis, but we also have some $70-80 wine (retail, new) in the cellar. We enjoy both, in different ways.
(What really hurts is when you see a wine being sold by the glass at a restaurant that is the same price as what you know you spent on a full bottle at home. But that's another issue.)
Yeah, regarding the restaurant thing, that drives me nuts. Since they charge about twice what a bottle of wine costs, I try to be reasonable. I don't mind paying more, but I want it to be good, the expectations are higher. If it is just as good as any other bottle I have at home, it is a bit irritating.
I have a few bottles here that are fairly expensive, but mostly there were given as gifts. They are good (the ones I have tried anyway), but that's just not where I want to spend $80-$120.
2x? Most restaurants I go to charge 3x, sometimes 4x. Serious profit margin.
LifeHacker tip: Never buy the second-least-expensive wine (bottle or tier of bottles). That's the one with the biggest markup, because not many people go high, but fewer want to be seen as "cheap".
Both Frasca and Black Cat have taught me that even a $10 bottle can be amazingly good.
I would recommend people sample and buy it because they like it. Who cares what you like and don't like? Drink Zinfandel if that is your fancy.
The local store here regularly give out samples and have tastings and the like, it's a good way to find out what you like. But they don't branch out much.
It is, in fact, my fancy, +Jon Weber, esp a nicely peppery/spicy one.