"'It is one of the ironies of the wine market today,' the wine critic Jancis Robinson writes, 'that just as the price differential between cheapest and most expensive bottles is greater than ever before, the difference in quality between these two extremes is probably narrower than it has ever been.'”

Sometimes, ole Jancis gets it right.

"'...that the 'liking patterns' of consumers are in some instances exactly 'opposite to experts’ quality perceptions.”

That's somewhat true across cultural elements when comparing Pop culture to high culture, as the writer goes on to observe when writing, "Parallel trends exist in music, fashion, movies and art, where the lowbrow and highbrow coexist."

A well written article. Thanks for the heads up, Tom.
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BEB

"I've wrestled with reality for 35 years and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it." Elwood P. Dowd