With wine, let your palate recalibrate your

Wine lovers are a notoriously choosy bunch even in the best of times, and now the sagging economy and creeping inflation are forcing us to become even pickier, especially when shopping in the upscale realm.

The days are gone (if they ever existed) when one could blithely throw some extra money at an unfamiliar bottle in the hopes that it would bring exceptional rewards. Researching a wine beforehand is more important than ever, and so is honestly reassessing where your true passions lie so that you can more easily restrict your impulse purchases.

Every so often I like to recalibrate what I call my pleasure index. I examine my recent drinking habits and ask myself which types of wine truly knock my socks off and are worthy of occasional high-end purchases, and which are best enjoyed only at a lower price. My tastes change over time, and various kinds of wines come in and out of vogue, so the index needs to be updated occasionally.

To begin this process, I conducted a simple tasting of domestic (mostly California) Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs, Syrahs and Cabernet Sauvignons. For each variety I chose five wines that cost $20 or less and five that cost more than $20, and made sure that some very inexpensive bottles and some very expensive ones were included for each variety so that I could compare the extremes. I tasted through the 40 wines (this wasn't a blind test, so I knew what I was drinking and the price) and jotted down notes about how much pleasure I received from each.

The results varied widely depending upon the variety. Among the Chardonnays, the cheapest ($9) wine was thin and boring. But once I got above $15, the rewards were fairly consistent. That tells me that my taste buds don't necessarily get an extra thrill from luxury-priced Chardonnays, so it makes sense for me to stay in the $15-to-$20 range.