A three-euro bottle of wine that any reasonable person could immediately deduce is awful has nevertheless been enthusiastically purchased because it is adorned with a golden sticker.
Mike Crayton says he was shopping at a discount supermarket when the bottle, which was on display on the bottom of shelf in the drinks section, hidden behind a four-euro bottle of vodka and a damaged and discounted box of sweets, caught his eye.
“Right away I noticed the shiny yellow award sticker on the label, and I felt like Charlie Bucket when he opens the chocolate bar and sees the edge of the golden ticket,” he said.
While Crayton says that he did not leap into the air and dance as Charlie Bucket’s grandfather does in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” he did buy the bottle and plans on presenting it to wife for a special occasion.
“The label says ‘Gold Medal Wine Awards, Helsinki,1998,’” Crayton said. “You don’t get a gold medal for nothing. People pay big money for a champion wine. I’ll bet that some of those fancy Bordeaux wines don’t even get gold medals.”
