Wine production in Denmark Do the characteristics of the vineyards affect the chances for awards?

Abstract

By the end of the former century there were less than 10 commercial vintners producing wine in Denmark. There was widespread acceptance of the view that commercial production of wine in the most northern parts of Europe was impossible. However, the number of commercial wine growers in Denmark grew to more tha 60 at the end of 2009 and the Association of Danish Winegrowers now counts more than 1400 members. Denmark can no longer be seen as a non-wine producing country! Formally, the transformation of Denmark to a wine producing country took place in year 2000 when Denmark was accepted as a commercial wine producing nation within the European Union. Based on a remarkably detailed micro data set this paper first gives a description of wine production in Denmark and thereafter we address the question whether vineyard characteristics are important for the quality of the wine and/or whether individual characteristics of the wine grower are important. Using a hedonic model the focus is especially on the importance of general factors like the type of soil, slope, geography, grape variety etc. in relation to the awards obtained by the respective vineyards.No; keywords