Remember that taste is a combination of the actual taste and smell senses. Which explains why when you have a blocked nose, it becomes harder to taste things.

That is the main reason to smell wine (let alone any food you eat) as well as taste it with your mouth. No need, of course, to tell us about the hidden qualities etc. - just say "good", "bad", "light" or "heavy".


Like I said, there are some good expensive wines out there. There is also such a thing as cheap and nasty. There are no hard and fast rules, but I'm willing to bet that there can't be a decent educated person out there that would buy a bottle of wine simply due to the hyperbole story of the taste of the wine alone (i.e. they would probably taste it before they purchase it, although what do you do if you're in a shop which has no tasting?)