Which wine should I buy?

Previously I wrote How to enjoy wine. As has been documented, wine has many healthy benefits and I have found that almost any food tastes better when accompanied by a bottle of wine. Plus, there are all these great recipes, for example, my favorite pears in wine.

Like most other things, we often associate high price with better quality. As far as wines are considered, we are awed by a bottle of wine that costs more than $100. Some wines can cost a lot more than that, of course.
Does that mean expensive wine is always better?

No, according to latest research by Antonio Rangel, associate professor of economics at the California Institute of Technology. He found that you can increase a person's enjoyment of wine by just sticking a higher price on it. In a blind test, he discovered that people's brain concluded that higher price wine was more delicious, even though the professor has merely slapped a label on a cheap bottle of wine.

I agree that wine connoisseurs and sommeliers can distinguish a cheap wine from an expensive one but for the rest of us, there is no difference.

So how to buy a good bottle of wine for a party?

• Don't experiment. Stick to the brand that you have drank before and like it. I love the Charles Shaw available at Trader Joe's for less than $5 a bottle. I have served it at dozens of parties and no one said that they didn't love it.
• There is no reason to talk endlessly about the wine that you are serving. Focus on the food instead. People come to a party for entertainment and eating; alcohol is least important.
  
• Follow the rules of drinking wine. Red wine should be served at room temperature and white wine should be chilled.
• In case, you want to spend the money, here is a list of best wines.