Labels stir wine consumers’ emotions, Australian study shows

A consumer study by wine researchers at the University’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine indicates that more than merely influencing consumer choice, wine label descriptions can affect consumer emotions, draw them to a particular brand and encourage them to pay more for a bottle.

The study's project leader, Associate Professor Sue Bastian said that selecting an appropriate wine, whether in store, restaurant or online is often seen by consumers as difficult, adding that the importance of wine labels and label information has been widely studied and it’s been clearly shown that they represent useful information which influences consumer choice.

‘Our study extends these findings, showing that wine descriptions also influence our whole wine consumption experience.’

The research was conducted with Australian white wines, and 126 regular white wine consumers found that the presentation of more elaborate wine descriptions significantly increased the preference rating the consumers allocated to the wines.

‘These findings have important implications for wine producers in that descriptions require more than just wine tasting notes,’ commented Dr Lucas Daner, a post-doctoral research fellow and first author on the study. ‘Companies could even consider involving consumers in label description optimization.’