The relative importance of extrinsic and intrinsic wine attributes

In this study, an online choice task was combined with a separate informed sensory hedonic test to understand the interplay of wine sensory characteristics and extrinsic attributes such as packaging, price and brand awareness. This approach simulates the process of a consumer choosing a product from the shelf, tasting the product, and making a repurchase decision. Twenty-one Australian Shiraz red wines were characterised by a trained sensory panel. Four hundred and twenty regular wine consumers chose a wine for a dinner with friends from simulated shelves of the wines represented by photographs in an online experiment. The same consumers evaluated liking and purchase intent in a central location sensory test, which included photos of each wine tasted. Respondents? online choices are a measure of extrinsic wine attributes and were found to be highly related to a wine?s AC Nielsen market share. Price was found to be a strong positive driver of informed liking, which did not relate to the sales volume, or to the choice in the online experiment. In contrast, the previous online choice was a strong predictor for purchase intent, confirming that extrinsic attributes substantially influence the re-purchase decision. For both liking and purchase intent a number of sensory characteristics were also positively (sweetness, fresh fruit aromas) and negatively (sherry-like and reductive aromas) related, confirming the influence of sensory characteristics on the repurchase decision. Combining choice experiments and sensory tests which simulate consumers? purchase, tasting and repurchase decision process is the first step towards better pre-testing of new wines and predicting their market uptake.