(VinePair) - You know how you go for the slightly shinier apple, or get (briefly) bummed when the Big Mac in your hands looks absolutely nothing like the Big Mac in the commercial? Like it or not, aesthetics factor into consumer judgment as much as — often more than — substance. But not because we’re monsters. We live in a hyper-visual, hyper-commercial world where everything from hamburgers to depression medication is marketed to us with a strong aesthetic component, such as when the depressed woman is finally hopeful again, a window shade opens up (yay!) and maybe we notice her teeth look a bit whiter. Visuals are a messaging shorthand, often used to impart a sense of quality.

The same is true in beverage — yes, even in the age of rampant “craft,” when we’re all thirsting for authenticity, we’re also tweaking the visuals for marketing purposes. Which is why something like whiskey, one of the most revered distillates in drinking history, is very often “corrected” with caramel coloring. All the flavor we’re looking for could already be in the bottle but the producer knows we associate complexity and style with a particular hue. And the same goes for wine. It’s just not talked about, at least not so much that we all get really worked up and charge the nearest chateau, demanding answers.