Third-party ratings and the US wine market

Barry J. Babin · Christian Bushardt

8 citations0/0 files storedInternational Journal of Wine Business Research

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Wine Industry and Tourism Art History and Market Analysis Consumer Market Behavior and Pricing

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to provide insight into the three most prevalent expert wine rater sources and how they separately affect retail prices post-release across a sample of French and US wines from the 2012 vintage. Design/methodology/approach Empirical research using regression models built on data scraped from Web sources provides the source for the substance of the paper. Findings The findings suggest that all rating sources affect release price (approximately $3-4 per point), but more indicative of market performance, only Wine Advocate ratings significantly influence price change in the market post-release. Other results suggest some, but far from complete, consistency among raters. Red wines and French wines typically fetch better scores from the raters, and they are less subject to price drops in the marketplace. Research limitations/implications The nature of the data does not allow for consumers’ individual difference characteristics, such as wine knowledge, among others, to be included as potential factors explaining why and when expert ratings influence consumers. Practical implications Third-party wine ratings do indeed matter both in terms of release price and post-release price performance. In particular, following release, Wine Advocate ratings provide the most influential quality signal in the marketplace. Social implications Scrutiny on the manner in which ratings information is used by retailers is appropriate, given the influence such ratings have on consumers as demonstrated by their effects on market behaviors. Originality/value The research examines the top three US expert ratings and considers their consistency and impact, not just on release price but also on price following release, as a direct indicator of product performance in the marketplace.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 8 citations exist upstream.

References

1973Job Market Signaling 2001Effect of Manufacturer Reputation, Retailer Reputation, and Product Warranty on Consumer Judgments of Product Quality: A Cue Diagnosticity Framework 2001Exploring Managers' Perceptions of the Impact of Sponsorship on Brand Equity 2011The Economics of Credence Goods: An Experiment on the Role of Liability, Verifiability, Reputation, and Competition 2001Third-Party Organization Endorsement of Products: An Advertising Cue Affecting Consumer Prepurchase Evaluation of Goods and Services 2008The Impact of Gurus: Parker Grades and en Primeur Wine Prices 2014Wine Prices and Quality Ratings: A Meta‐regression Analysis 2008An Examination of Judge Reliability at a major U.S. Wine Competition

Cited by

2022Consumer Perceptions of Wine Quality Assurance Programs: An Opportunity for Emerging Wine Markets 2022Quality assurance program provider’s influence on wine purchases among Tennessee and U.S. consumers: a multiple indicators multiple causes model analysis 2026Concordance or conflict? A 40-year longitudinal study of a South African wine club versus expert ratings and price 2025Product scarcity effect and marketing strategy: evidence from wine ranking data (1988–2022)

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.