Julian31
Assistant Cook
I would argue that "perceived value" accounts for 99.999% of that.
Think about it this way. It takes roughly 700 grapes to make a bottle of wine. Therefore, a $12,000 bottle breaks down to roughly $17 PER GRAPE. There is no grape in the world that is worth that much money.
Most people who buy those high priced bottles are collectors. Typically they hang on to it for a few years, hoping that the price will go up (and if they really want the price to go up, they will buy up the last of a rare lot). Then they turn around and sell it to people who are willing to pay the price. Those people, in turn, only care about serving it to their rich, snobby friends, so they can all ooh and ahh over the exorbitant price that was paid.
I once had the opportunity to taste an $800 bottle of French Chardonnay. I thought it was pretty good, but it certainly wasn't 40 times better than my favorite $20 bottle.
The wines with the highest perceived values, at least to me, are the ones shared with good friends.
I totally agree with Steve Kroll. I believe it is all about personal choice and taste as well. What good for you might not be for me and so on...
Wine tasting is very subjective indeed.