One of my occasional lunchtime treats is a visit to my local noodle bar. A meal for those days when carbs and fat are craved by the body, nothing else will do. Someone should make trans fats taste as bad to your middle class margarine eater as methylated spirit to a broke alcoholic. Then I would only have the MSG to worry about.

I battled through with the chop sticks but gave in and used the spoon provided towards the end. Immediately all the taste, enjoyment and authentic feeling of the dish evaporated. I felt both conspicuous and unsatisfied with my resolve. I was no longer worthy of eating Chinese food. Fair enough that the only Mandarin I know is a small orange, but to have not mastered chop sticks by tender age of 40 seemed inexcusable.

I was like a duck out of Hoisin sauce.

The most striking thing was the perceived change in flavour of the dish as soon as I opted for the spoon. It was really odd, the spell had been broken, the dish became very ordinary.

This is simply why, in my opinion it is important to drink wine from a glass. The more we dress it up, the more likely we are to enjoy it. Take away familiarity, throw in some awkwardness and you may like the wine less. Respect the drink and it will do its best to respect your palate.

Sounds like rubbish, after all you taste what you taste...right?

No so. Studies have revealed that taste is affected by packaging and a whole host of other feel good factors. This has recently been taken a bit further. The American Association of Wine Economists has discovered that wine novices can accurately assess the value of a bottle just by looking at the label.

No need for bottle prices I hear you shout. Just get the check out person to ask you what you think. One less infuriating beep to worry about. Back to the real world where we have to 'lock our doors', they already need a cordon of scrutinising armed staff around self-checkout queues so I very much doubt a new wacky concept like price estimation will catch on.

What this study does tell us, combined with information from other research, is that if wine looks expensive it will be enjoyed more.

In that case I am going to design some very classy labels and rebrand my plonk to serve to my future guests. Let's see if they salivate over rubbish. Is that mean?....Yes probably, but after all isn’t that what goes on in a considerable portion of the wine industry?

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