From Gurus to Geeks? The Role of Customer and Expert Ratings in a Hedonic Analysis of French Red Wine Prices

Wine is an experience good whose true quality can only be known by consuming it. This characteristic provides a rationale for recourse to experts who provide information on wine quality and reduce the information asymmetry for the consumer. Consumers may come to rely more on the comments and ratings of other consumers or peers, rather than those of experts (guides, specialized journals, personalities). This tendency has been observed in the hospitality (restaurants, hotels) and cultural (movies, novels) markets where popular applications exist and allow information to be collected from peers. We hypothesize that consumers’ ratings will come to dominate expert ratings in the wine expertise market. We use the ratings posted by consumers on the Vivino online marketplace for 37,960 French red wines. We employ a hedonic regression framework which includes the usual attributes of the wines as well as the ratings from both recognized experts and those of consumers on the Vivino platform. Average consumer ratings are found to have a larger effect on price than expert scores. These results are found to be robust to outliers and the general conclusion that peers matter more than experts holds when we exclude the top-end wines

Did wine consumption change during the Covid-19 lockdown in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal?

This article documents how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the drinking behavior of Latin European wine consumers. Using a large online survey conducted during the first lockdown inFrance, Italy, Portugal, and Spain (n= 7,324 individuals), we reconstruct the purchasing and consumption patterns of the respondents. The number of people who maintained their wine consumption frequency is significantly higher than those who increased or decreased their consumption. Wine consumption frequency held up better than other types of alcohol (beer andspirits). We analyze heterogeneities among countries and individuals by employing the Marascuilo procedure and an ordered logit model. The latter identifies the impact of demographic, commercial, and psychosocial factors on wine consumption frequency. The results shed light on changes in wine consumer behavior during the first lockdown and consider possible post-lockdown trends that could be useful to industry players

The market for wine quality evaluation: evolution and future perspectives

Most economic studies on expert wine evaluation focus on this evaluation as a determinant of wine prices, whereas most management research on the topic tackles its impact on the perception of wine quality: wine consumers use expert evaluation as an external quality cue. In the present research, we intend to fill the gap in valuation studies. We propose a first extensive exploration and categorization of five decades of research on wine quality signaling and evaluation through market analysis. We review the emergence and evolution of a consumer- oriented wine evaluation market, providing a critical account of demand, and unveil the market structure and mechanisms. The parallel development of scientific knowledge and technical practices over the last few decades has had a significant impact on wine quality definition and evaluation. It also influenced the way consumers obtain information about wine quality. We provide a historical perspective, exploring the emergence and standardization of wine quality evaluation and identifying the 1970s as the turning point from a production-driven market to a consumer-oriented one. Important changes are afoot on the market for wine evaluation: in areas traditionally set aside for experts, the roles of social media and experts have evolved meaningfully over the past decade with the growing self-confidence and self-reliance of wine consumers and the disappearance of the demarcation between marketplace and prescription

Documenter les zones humides : vers une meilleure compréhension des paysages d’eau du XIXe au XXe s.

L’approche géohistorique, fondée sur l’intégration de sources archivistiques et iconographiques au sein d’un SIG, permet la reconstruction paysagère de trois zones humides du Nord-Pas de Calais. L’analyse du paysage-objet, confrontée à l’étude des usages et des politiques montre comment l’artificialisation de la nature s’est doublée d’une récente redécouverte esthétique de ce patrimoine naturel.The geo-historical approach is based on the integration of archival and iconographic material into a GIS. It allows us to reconstruct the landscape of three wetlands in the Nord-Pas de Calais region. Taking into account the uses and management strategies of wetlands, this spatial and historical analysis shows how the development of artificial rather than natural landscapes was accompanied by an aesthetic rediscovery of this natural heritage

Wine stress vs. Technostress: Communities and wine appreciation digital platforms

In this conceptual article, we propose to investigate the intrinsic motivations of wine appreciation platform user communities, such as Vivino. By helping to reduce the stress linked to the complexity of the purchasing and tasting experience, which we call wine stress, these technologies increase the pleasure of participating in the community and gamify the sharing of knowledge via the platform. At the same time, exposing the user both to social exposure within the community of wine enthusiasts, and thus to peer judgment, but also to cognitive dissonance in the tasting experience

Hedonic valence of descriptive sensory terms as an indirect measure of liking: A preliminary study with red wines

Data is available on Mendeley data.International audiencePredicting and/or understanding consumers’ preferences based on sensory descriptions has long been an objective in food science. This article proposes a method to build a dictionary of hedonic valence of sensory attributes related to the perception of red wines. One hundred and sixty-six consumers were asked about their expected liking for products presenting certain sensory attributes. Based on their answers, the hedonic valences of these sensory attributes were computed. Hedonic valences of sensory attributes allow us to determine the characteristics that are expected to positively or negatively influence liking of red wines. Conclusions based on hedonic valences of sensory attributes were compared to those drawn with drivers of liking computed using free-comment and check-all-that-apply questions combined with stated liking scores in three wine-tasting studies. Except for a few exceptions, the conclusions were similar, suggesting that hedonic valence of sensory attributes can be useful to obtain a general overview of expectations for a product category, while drivers of liking can be used to investigate differences specific to a set of products. Hedonic valence of sensory descriptions based on free-comment and check-all-that-apply data were computed at the individual level in an attempt to predict liking without directly asking for it. Hedonic valence of sensory descriptions and stated liking scores were moderately correlated but led to the same ranking of products at the panel level. Thus, it seems that hedonic valence of sensory descriptions can be considered indirect measure of liking. However, further comparisons involving more studies and different food categories are necessary to confirm these promising results

Wingless Capture by Frizzled and Frizzled2 in Drosophila Embryos

International audienceA variety of factors could influence how far developmental signals spread. For example, the Patched receptor limits the range of its ligand Hedgehog. Somehow, the Frizzled2 receptor has the opposite effect on its ligand. Increasing the level of Frizzled2 stabilizes Wingless and thus extends the Wingless gradient in Drosophila wing imaginal disks. Here we ask whether Frizzled or Frizzled2 affects the spread of Wingless in Drosophila embryos. We show that in the embryonic epidermis, the combined expression of both receptors is lowest in the engrailed domain. This is because expression of Frizzled is repressed by the Engrailed transcription factor, whereas that of Frizzled2 is repressed by Wingless signaling. Receptor downregulation correlates with an early asymmetry in Wingless distribution, characterized by the loss of Wingless staining in the engrailed domain. Raising the expression of either Frizzled or Frizzled2 in this domain prevents the early disappearance of Wingless-containing vesicles. Apparently, Wingless is captured, stabilized, and quickly internalized by either receptor. As far as we can tell, captured Wingless is not passed on to further cells and does not contribute to the spread of Wingless. Receptor downregulation in the posterior compartment may contribute to dampening the signal at the time when cuticular fates are specified