WINE costing less than �5 per bottle can taste just as good as an expensive tipple.

That’s according to a University of Hertfordshire professor whose experiment says you shouldn’t be a ‘plonker’ by being fooled by the price tag.

Richard Wiseman’s The Taste Test showed that inexpensive bottles can taste just great, with results showing neither his 435 tasters nor the experimenters holding the test knew the cost of the wine.

The experiment was carried out at the Edinburgh International Science Festival, using inexpensive wines costing less than �5 per bottle, and the expensive ones at between �10 and �30.

The volunteers tried a mixture of red and white wines from various countries, including Sauvignon Blanc, Rioja, Claret and Champagne, and then tried to categorise each in terms of price.

The test was conducted ‘double-blind’, with neither the tasters nor experimenters knowing the cost of the wine.

By chance, the volunteers would have correctly classified their wine as expensive or inexpensive only 50 per cent of the time.

The tasters’ actual accuracy was exactly the same as chance, demonstrating that they could not distinguish between the two types of wine by taste alone.

“These are remarkable results,” said psychologist professor Richard.

“People were unable to tell expensive from inexpensive wines, and so in these times of financial hardship the message is clear – the inexpensive wines we tested taste the same as their expensive counterparts.”