A colleague forwarded this link to me recently. It’s about a new book by food writer Robin Goldstein, called “The Wine Trials.” 500 people tasted more than 6,000 glasses of wine in a blind test. Now that's a party.

The book takes the ingenious angle of picking wines according to how they taste, not according to price. Apparently, the best stuff doesn’t necessarily have to live on the top shelf at the state liquor store.

The book could be an eye opener for the assumption that the best wines must cost more than $100. Not so, according to Goldstein. As an example, she says that a bottle of Domaine Ste. Michelle Brut (cost- $9.99) scored higher than Dom Perignon, at $150. Intriguing. Boxed wines are included as good deals as well.

The research gives hope to those who simply can’t justify spending a paycheck on a bottle of wine. Some that cost $5 could be just as satisfying.

Also, the study Goldstein did showed that when the price was revealed before tasting, people tended to favor the more expensive bottle over the cheaper one. Could be a useful read. Here's the link. You can pre-order it from Amazon.com for $14.95.