Wine drinkers tend to buy bottles with hard-to-pronounce names

Il Carbonaione Poggio Scalette

 

DALLAS, Texas

Chateau Moncontour Vourvray. Chateau Margaux. It seems like our favorite liquor store is getting an overload of wine names that are difficult to say!

“Customers will usually will make an attempt to pronounce it,” said David Waddington of Sigel’s on Greenville in Dallas.

And if they can’t pronounce it, they’re more likely to buy it.

That’s according to a study - wine drinkers will usually go for the bottle with the hard-to-pronounce name and less likely to choose something like Groth or Josh.

It doesn’t matter how the wine tastes, if it has a crazy long name no one can say, customers will put down their money.

“The names are hard to pronounce, they’re foreign to us,” said Waddington.

Which means they’re bound to me more fancy, right?! Let’s see what customers think. Customers were shown a bottle with a foreign name and a bottle called Hall.

When asked which they would rather drink, all chose the bottle with the foreign name.

“It sounds more exotic,” said Randy Reeves.

Customers were then asked which bottle seems more expensive. Again, all chose the bottle with the foreign name. (They’re actually the same price.)

The same study found people would pay more for the bottles with hard-to-say names. Let this story be some great tips if you ever decide to market wine!

“I would probably look up some French words, and throw them together and put the word Chateau it there somewhere,” said Reeves.

But Waddington wishes the results of the study were a little different. Our expert says the Hall wine and the bottle with the foreign name are both very good, quality wines. He encourages wine drinkers, both amateur and professional, to not judge a bottle by its name alone.

“I sell wine by education, by telling about the wine. Not just how to pronounce it. Every wine has a story,” said Waddington.

If you’re lucky enough to walk into a liquor store with a wine consultant like David, ask about a particular bottle’s story.

“I try to find out what their needs are, what they’re looking for -what they want, what their budget is,” said Waddington.

So now let’s debunk this study. Do your research before you run and grab that wine with the longest and most exotic name!

So what say you, Joe Canal's customers? When you're looking to try something different, would you be more likely to grab an easy-to pronounce Joel Gott, or a more exotic-named wine, such as Celestin Blondeau Sancerre?

This article was written by Tommy Noel and originally published on fox40.com.