Almost All Wines Taste the Same, Even to Experts

Report and data here, commentary here.  New Jersey has scored a coup in the wine world just like Napa did in the 1970s.

It may be that there's nothing special about fermented grape juice as a beverage, relative to other alcoholic drinks.  In its current context, tasting wine signals class and erudition and time invested in culture; so for developing a taste in wine to be rational, the status signaling effects must outweigh the costs of (otherwise foolishly) making your marginal unit of pleasure more difficult to obtain.  Of course that latter consideration might not matter at all if it all tastes the same.