Terroir 2016 banner
IVES 9 IVES Conference Series 9 Vineyards and grape varieties: what is going on in wine professional and consumer minds?

Vineyards and grape varieties: what is going on in wine professional and consumer minds?

Abstract

Vineyard and grape variety are two popular ways of classifying wines. Vineyard designation is a traditional practice for European wine labels but is being increasingly replaced by grape variety designation, mainly used for New World and Swiss wine labels.

In a context of wine categorization, we investigated on the relationship between those two dimensions. For this purpose, we selected a set of 56 wine labels to represent three red grape varieties (Gamay, Pinot Noir and Gamaret) and three vineyards (Beaujolais, Burgundy and Switzerland). Three panels were recruited: a panel of 30 wine professionals (experts) from the Beaujolais vineyard, a panel of 30 wine consumers from the Beaujolais vineyard and a panel of 30 wine consumers from Lille, a French region without wine production. We used a free hierarchical sorting task on labels coupled with a verbalization task and an interview. Data were first analyzed separately for each panel using a Hierarchical Multiple Factor Analysis and a Hierarchical Ascending Classification.

Results showed that the three panels yielded very similar wine groups. With the exception of Gamaret wines, most French wines were separated by both vineyard and grape variety while Swiss wines were separated by grape varieties. Despite this similar categorization pattern, the interviews revealed different sorting criteria and strategies used to sort the labels for each panel. With the exception of a small part of experts, both experts and consumers from Beaujolais used their knowledge of grape varieties and vineyards to sort the wine labels while the consumers from Lille simply read the labels to find clues and deduce wine groups, because of a lack of knowledge.

Overall, the results indicate an interaction between vineyard and grape variety dimensions for the wine categorization by experts and consumers. The methodology proposed seems to be a promising tool that could be helpful to improve the promotion of wines.

Download the PDF

DOI:

Publication date: June 23, 2020

Issue: Terroir 2016

Type: Article

Authors

Carole HONORÉ-CHEDOZEAU (1,2), Maud LELIÈVRE-DESMAS (3), Jordi BALLESTER (1), Sylvie CHOLLET (3), Bertrand CHATELET (2), Dominique VALENTIN (1)

(1) UMR CSGA 6265 CNRS, INRA, UBFC, 9E Boulevard Jeanne d’Arc, 21000 Dijon, France
(2) SICAREX Beaujolais, 210 Boulevard Victor Vermorel, CS 60320, 69661 Villefranche sur Saône Cedex, France
(3) ISA Lille, Institut Charles VIOLLETTE (ICV) EA 7394, 59000 Lille, France

Contact the author

Keywords

vineyards, grape varieties, mental representation, wine labels, experts, consumers

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2016

Citation

Related articles…

Chitosan elicits mono-glucosylated stilbene production and release in fed-batch fermentation of grape cells 

In the present study, the optimal conditions of grape (Vitis vinifera cv ‘Barbera’) cell cultures in batch and fed-batch bioreactor processes were studied to specifically improve the production of mono-glucosylated stilbenes.

Read More

Zoning mountain landscapes for a valorisation of high identity products

Mountain agriculture is made difficult by the geomorphological complexity of the territory. This is especially true for viticulture: over the centuries the work of men in such a difficult environment

Read More

Extension to the Saumurois-Touraine area of an Anjou-originated method for the characterisation of the viticultural terroirs. (Loire Valley, France)

En Anjou, une méthode de caractérisation des terroirs viticoles a été développée. Elle utilise un modèle de terrain basé sur la profondeur de sol et son degré d’argilisation. Le modèle concerne des terrains issus principalement de roches mères métamorphiques et éruptives du Massif Armoricain. Cet outil de caractérisation des terroirs viticoles nécessite d’être adapté lorsqu’il s’agit d’ensembles géologiques très différents, en particulier sur sols d’apport et de roches mères tendres et poreuses du Bassin Parisien. Une meilleure compréhension de la réserve hydrique des sols apparaît être un critère important de l’interaction entre le milieu et la plante.

Read More

Impact of pedoclimatical conditions on the precocity potential of vineyards in the canton of Geneva

Terroir studies are common nowadays but few have used precise pedoclimatic measures in order to evaluate the precocity potential. The objectives of this work were (i) to assess the effect of main terroir parameters (soil, climate and topography) influencing the phenological development of the vine, and (ii) to evaluate a geostatistic approach by using a high number of already existing plots (higher variability) to analyze the terroir parameters’ impact.

Read More

Vineyard nutrient budget and sampling protocols

Vineyard nutrient management is crucial for reaching production-specific quality standards, yet timely evaluation of nutrient status remains challenging. The existing sampling protocol of collecting vine tissue (leaves and/or petioles) at bloom or veraison is time-consuming. Additionally, this sampling practice is too late for in-season fertilizer applications (e.g. N is applied well before bloom). Therefore alternative early-season protocols are necessary to predict the vine nutrient demand for the upcoming season. The main goals of this project are to 1) optimize existing tissue sampling protocols; 2) determine the amount of nutrients removed at the end of the growing season.

Read More