All I am saying is that I don't know to what extent the differences I hear and taste are differences that truly exist and to what extent they are manufactured in my head, entirely unbenown to me. 

So, how do you make your purchasing decisions, if you don't trust your ears & senses?

@brianh61     Your wine shop is only trying to be helpful of course by recommending a 'similar' bottle.

Many will agree with me that as a very delicate grape Pinot Noir can present very variably.  As a Burgundy drinker of many bottles experience, I have certainly found this.  Even in a case of 12 bottles, without there being any question of a 'fault' I often find noticeable differences between bottles.  This is not a confirmation bias as all the lables are the same and all the wine was bottled at almost the same moment.  It may be that the differences between the wines you requested of your shop and those recommended were less than those I have encountered in a single case.

A more amusing example of a shop offering something different to what was requested came a long time ago from a schoolfriend of mine who has rather large feet.  He went into a shoeshop and asked for a size 12.  The server came back and said 'sorry we don't have a 12 but we do have a large size 11'.

This post resonates with me. As a wine lover, I have had many opportunities to blind taste wines and always enjoy finding that bottle that satisfies the palate at a nominal price. Especially fun when an inexpensive bottle knocks out a very high-end wine (read expensive) at a blind tasting. This is for some the holy grail of wine - finding the overperformer.

Still, when it comes to percentages, the higher the price tag on the wine, the more likely that the wine will be of high quality. Not always true, and especially in the middle tier of pricing there are some clinkers, but when you start to pay higher prices the consistency of the producer and the quality of the product generally increase.

So anyone with a fat wallet can afford to drink amazing wine every night...they just need to pay for it. Most of us are not so fortunate and therefore turn to the value proposition - is this starting to sound familiar.

There is very definitely a risk of confirmation bias, especially when you have spent an inordinate amount of money on a "special" bottle, but the beauty of wine (unlike stereo equipment) is that blind comparison of wine is super easy. Find some bottles, remove the foil, pull the corks and stick them each in paper bags. someone can mix them up and another person can do the same and attach numbers, then the fun begins. One is freed of preconceived expectations and decides which they enjoy most and least. Seldom does everyone agree completely. Sometimes to everyone's surprise (like in Paris 1976) an "underdog" wins. If only blind comparisons were so easy for stereo equipment!

After 30+ years of tasting, I have experienced enough that I don't need to blind taste anymore to decide if I like a wine or not, and if it is worth the price tag to me. I don't care too much about the alcohol, or the phenols or glycerin or residual sugar quantitation of the bottle contents. I care how it tastes. If I like it, and the value proposition works for me I purchase it. if it doesn't tickle me I keep looking.

To close the analogy, there are people who might buy wine based on technical information or price alone, but that approach doesn't work for me. I trust my senses, and leave the technical details for others to marvel over. Same with audio, although I do wish that blind comparison was easier. Until I can build identical side by side high quality systems for direct comparison (never), I will just have to rely on my ears with the helpful advice and experience of others. I fully recognize that this will always come with inherent confirmation bias, but as long as I am enjoying what I hear I can live with that :)

@waytoomuchstuff 

your analogy breaks down rather quickly, as several people have noted already. Blind tasting is central to wine judging. Has been always will be. Professional sommeliers, are tested and accredited using this method. Winemaking is totally supported by science and in turn has invested heavily in research. you can get a degree in oenology from prestigious, land-grant universities in the US. The wine industry knows very precisely what makes a good wine and how to measure it. The trick is in producing it, and that in a large part is due to weather and its variability.  of course, like hi-fi, there is the marketing and the wordsmithing, and the romance, which is essential to the enterprise. Without the Romance of wine it becomes just another form of alcohol, which is a known carcinogen, muscle toxin , and intoxicant. We know these things too also courtesy of science. so, I think you will agree there are large and very significant differences between the very large wine industry, and the rather small industry around hi-fi. 

If we are going to compare, please compare fully and look at the "numbers".  How many manufacturers are there of hi-fi and how many vineyards?  Pretty sure the wine dudes are much more prevalent than the hi-fi dudes.  You would think that as much as has been spent in the field of wine and being a much older industry everyone would have arrived at a point of saying here is your red option and here is your white option.  These are the best, not open for discussion.  While sometimes you want a nice bordeaux, other times you just gotta pound some Night Train.  If audio goes like wine, there will be more and more options and flavors and sounds, wonderful.