Your choice of wine may depend on label descriptions

Findings showed that wine label descriptions can influence consumer choice, as well as alter consumer emotions, increasing their liking for wine and encouraging them to pay more for a bottle. 

The presentation of more elaborate wine descriptions, which included information regarding winery history and positive wine quality statements, significantly increased the preference rating the consumers allocated to the wines.

"Cleverly written wine and producer descriptions when coupled with unbranded wine tasting can evoke more positive emotions, increasing our positive perception of the wine, our estimation of its quality and the amount we would be willing to pay for it," said Sue Bastian, Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide in Australia. 

Further, the results showed that if the expectations elicited by the wine description closely matched the actual liking from tasting, consumers felt far more positive emotions than if it didn't meet expectations.

"These findings have important implications for wine producers and the hospitality industry in that descriptions require more than just wine tasting notes," said Lukas Danner, postdoctoral student at the University of Adelaide. 

"Companies could even consider involving consumers in label description optimisation," he added.

For the study, published in the journal Food Research International, the team conducted a study with Australian white wines and 126 regular white wine consumers. 

The consumers evaluated the same set of three commercially available white wines (Chardonnay, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc) under three information levels: a blind tasting with no information; the provision of a basic sensory description; and provision of an elaborate/emotional description.