According to Brian Wansink's research (detailed in his book, Mindless Eating), the label on a bottle of wine has a significant effect on how people judge its taste. Two groups of people were given the same wine. One group received bottles with the label of a fake North Dakota winery. The other group's bottles had a fake California winery label. The "California" wine received a much higher rating than the "North Dakota" wine.

So thanks to the placebo effect, those fancy counterfeit labels will at least make the cheap wines inside the bottles taste better than they would have (as long as you don't find out they're counterfeit)! Positive spin!

Yeh, kind of reminds me of the "research" they just announced... in which elementary school children enjoyed carrots which came from a McDonalds wrapper as opposed to a paper towel (go figure).