@ObviouslyNotAGolfer
I remember my host family when I lived in Spain telling me that anything older than a Crianza (2-5 years) was overpriced. Crianzas are really just a sweet (poor choice of words) spot for Spanish reds.
Very interesting--and it makes sense! We have found--innumerable times--that we often get drawn into a certain winery's tasting room by having tried their moderately priced offerings purchased from a store. Then, we try the more expensive stuff and don't care for it much at all. A few summers ago, we had a great trip through Marin and Sonoma Counties (north of the SF Bay area in California). We went into a few of the very highly rated wineries ($$$) and did not care for much of anything. Certainly, many of these wines are meant to be cellared and enjoyed years later--but we are not into that--yet!
Depends on your specific taste; if you're into lighter or sweeter wines, or if you're just not a fan of the additional flavors that barrel aging impacts, then you're not going to enjoy the more expensive "reserve" wines as much.
I have a similar thing with scotch (esp. single malts). I enjoy the standard ~10yr offerings, but then for most brands the next step up is essentially the same thing but aged in some special type of barrel ("sherry cask", some special wood, etc.). Personally I'm not a fan of strong oak/barrel flavors, so I'd much rather have just the basic version, which also happens to save me money. (I do generally like their top tier versions that are traditionally aged for longer periods, but I'm too cheap to pay for those.)
Coming back to wines, I find that I have the same issue with white wines; even when the barrel aging is well done to avoid the overt "oaky" flavor, I still tend to prefer the cheaper steel-aged or lightly barrel aged equivalents. OTOH, red wines are the one place where I seem to enjoy substantial barrel aging, which makes my tastes there rather expensive :-/
Exactly.
I was always fascinated by people who said they can't tell the difference between inexpensive and very expensive wine, because to me, it was always obvious. Wines meant to be aged are made from different grapes, and the barrel taste is, IMO, unmistakable. It doesn't mean it's superior, a lot of people prefer younger wines, but it is definitely different, like young cheese vs aged cheese.
I could also immediately identify a more expensive sparkling wine vs a cheaper one, but I always generally preferred the lighter, cheaper ones, and really had to be in the mood for the intense, sharp flavour of the expensive ones.
Again, more expensive doesn't necessarily mean better, that entirely depends on the person's taste, but for me, with my sense of smell, there was no mistaking them. They're just different because they are made differently.
As for a $15 wine vs a $30 wine, if they're both young wines, made in a similar fashion, then no, I probably wouldn't be able to tell which is more expensive if I wasn't overly familiar with the region.
Now that I've lost my taste for it though, I wouldn't be able to tell any of them apart. They all smell overwhelmingly like alcohol to me now.