Exploring the effect of naturalness on consumer wine choices: Evidence from a survey in Italy

Although wine consumers are increasingly interested in natural wine, the definition of natural wine is still unclear. Thus, scholars argue that consumer understanding of natural wine characteristics might be vague and, therefore, natural wine perception can be heterogeneous among consumers. Accordingly, in this study, we question whether the perception of what is natural, or not, may affect consumer wine choice behaviour, by focusing on those attributes consumers may use to infer the naturalness of a wine. We present results from a survey conducted in Italy on 340 red wine consumers, which allowed us to determine drivers of wine consumption frequency and wine preference structure. By means of a choice experiment, we investigate the effect of a natural wine claim (‘objective naturalness’) and the effect of personal perceptions of naturalness (‘subjective naturalness’) on consumer evaluation for attributes that are generally linked to natural wine production. We find that consumers mostly associate natural wine with “artisanal” wine-making techniques and that wine choice behaviour can be affected by whether a wine is perceived as natural or not. However, we observe contrasting results when controlling for the effect of ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ wine naturalness. Finally, results show that respondents are willing to pay a price premium for the attributes linked to natural wine production, such as ecological certifications and wine-making techniques, but not for the “natural wine” claim. This suggests researchers should disentangle the different aspects of natural wine when exploring consumer preferences for this product.