C.G. Forde1*, C. Chrea1, C.M. Delahunty1, S. Smyth1, S. Reverseau3, D.N. Cox2

1) Food Futures Flagship, Food Science Australia, Sydney, Australia
2) Food Futures Flagship – CSIRO Human Nutrition, Adelaide, Australia
3) Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie et des Industries Alimentaires, Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine Nancy, France


There is strong motivation in the Australian wine industries to understand what is liked and disliked about their wines, and how best to communicate product attributes to their consumers. A reason for this is an increase in competition on both the domestic and export markets from resurgence in old world wine and significant competition from the many other new world producers at the value end of the market. The current study sought to understand the interaction between wine sensory properties and extrinsic product properties and their respective role in consumer choice.

Commercial wine samples were evaluated through a series of descriptive sensory studies to measure the predominant sensory differences between the leading wine brands from different regions across Australia. Subsets of these wines were selected for consumer research, and external preference mapping was applied to understand the sensory reasons for differences in consumer liking. Data were also collected on the many non-sensory (extrinsic) factors that influence consumer liking and purchase behaviour for wine. Questionnaires (e.g. involvement) were used to profile consumer types, and conjoint assessments were used to evaluate responses to wine bottle information. Findings were combined with the insights provided by sensory evaluation using multi-block regression to enable wine choice modelling, whereby the relative tradeoffs between the many sensory and extrinsic product related factors could be explored in more detail. These empirical findings describe a frame-work for consumer choice as an interaction between sensory properties and product information. This integrated approach not only incorporates sensory differences between products and liking differences between consumers, but also includes psychosocial factors responsible for differences in liking among consumer groups. The results of this research can be used to better connect the wine producer and marketer to their target consumer population through understanding their current consumers, promoting the appeal of their wines to new consumers, and to inform strategies that will meet future consumer demands.