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American wineries have taken marketing steps toward attracting consumers. They employ tasting scores to augment and solidify market share. According to Oster (1999) and Porter (1985), competitive advantage comes from either cost advantages or product differentiation. American wineries use tasting scores they receive from experts as the basis for product differentiation and raising prices. To achieve competitive advantage, the product must be seen as important and an improvement in the market, while simultaneously lacking imitation. This article looks at how tasting scores given by wine experts may affect American firms' competitive advantage, barring entry by importing rivals, such as Australian firms. If these tasting scores provide product importance and improvements, while delivering a product that lacks imitation, competitive advantage may result. If importers to the US realise this, these firms can undermine American advantages, increase competition, and gain market share through their own competitive advantages.

The purpose of this project was to explore and identify factors that influence a consumer to purchase wine during an afternoon of product sampling (wine tasting). A panel of consumers was recruited for an afternoon of wine tasting at vineyards in Napa, California. Several potential hedonistic, utilitarian and logistical factors (i.e. winery facilities, quality of the wine and order in which the winery was visited) were measured using a journal log that was maintained by participants following the tasting experience for a period of one‐month. The conclusions drawn from this study were that group size, confidence in one's ability to purchase wine and overall assessment of a vineyard's wine portfolio were more important than the hedonistic factors in terms of inducing a sale immediately following a taste.

The paper has a twofold purpose: (1) to test the application of means-end theory to providers of hospitality goods and services, and (2) to explore this question in the context of winery tasting rooms when they had a unique opportunity to restructure their hospitality experience due to government restrictions in response to COVID.

A qualitative approach was adopted, and a convenience sample was used to conduct semi-structured laddering interviews. Forty interview transcripts were coded as means-end ladders, which were analyzed using a custom computer program to develop the implication matrix and the hierarchical value map.

This paper demonstrates that means-end is a useful approach to investigate the values and behaviors of the producer, specifically hospitality hosts. It finds that the principal goal of tasting rooms is to generate sales, and offering a compelling guest experience is the characteristic that contributes the most to achieving that goal. The staff and the atmosphere created for the guests are the two factors with the greatest influence on the guest experience.

This is the first paper to use means-end theory to study the hospitality host, or the producer of goods and services in general, and the first to study winery hospitality primarily through the lens of means-end theory. The study also helps fill a gap in research on tasting room sales focused on the winery’s goals.

Music has a priming effect on product selection. The purpose of this paper is to extend the current understanding on this issue using an experimental design incorporating behavioural and brainwave data.

An experiment with 40 participants was conducted to explore how and why wine tasting preferences would be primed by different genres of musical stimuli. Electroencephalographic measurement was adopted to measure participant brainwave activity in two experiments, each involving two rounds of wine tasting, and the treatment was administered between the two rounds.

Significant associations between the musical stimulus genre and participant change in wine selection were found, and the musical stimuli resulted in different brainwave activities because participant β and γ wave activities significantly differed in the first and second wine tasting rounds. Correlational analyses indicated that α, β and γ wave activities generated by the musical stimuli were significantly but negatively correlated with α wave activity. α wave activity in the musical stimulus phases was significantly negatively correlated with β wave activity in the second round of wine tasting, and the other associations were significant and positive.

This study highlighted the priming effect of musical stimuli in wine tasting. Empirical evidence derived from experimental research was analysed with behavioural and brainwave data. This study’s original contribution is that it explored wine tasting preferences from a neuromarketing perspective. The results of this study can provide empirical evidence on how to effectively use music in marketing strategies.

Wine tasting is an integral method for engaging consumers. Producers go to great lengths to educate consumers on evaluating quality based on taste and aroma. Understanding the sensory and perceptual processes of wine tasting may offer insight into how consumers at different levels of wine expertise use their senses to evaluate wine.

This study used functional near-infrared spectroscopy to examine processing in the frontal lobe of the brain during wine tasting and aroma evaluation. Sixty subjects evaluated the tastes and aromas of wine samples with various levels of sweetness, whereas 16 defined areas of their frontal lobes were measured with functional near infrared measurement.

The subjects’ orbitofrontal cortices were activated during both olfaction (smelling) and tasting. Further, larger areas of the frontal lobes showed significant activation during the olfaction task than during the tasting task. The level of the subjects’ wine knowledge did not predict differences in neural processing when participants evaluated aroma of wine; however, subjects with higher wine knowledge did show significantly higher activation in specific frontal lobe regions when tasting. Differences in levels of product involvement among the subjects were not significant for the tasting task, but were significant for the olfaction task.

Developing a better understanding of the biological processes involved in tasting may lead to understanding the differences in consumer preferences for wine. This, in turn, may assist tasting room managers to adjust their tasting procedure to be tailored to consumer-specific needs.

The purpose of this paper is to study the impact that tasting sheet sensory descriptors have on wine sales in tasting rooms that rely on direct-to-consumer sales to sell the majority of their wines, such as those in New York wine regions.

Nine tasting rooms participated in the study that took place on weekends (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) during a six-week period in July and August 2012. Tasting rooms alternated tasting sheets by weekend, one including sensory descriptors and one omitting sensory descriptors. At the end of each weekend, tasting room managers compiled information on daily wine bottle and (in the case of seven wineries) dollar sales. A multivariate statistical model was created to measure the relationship between the treatment (tasting sheet with or without descriptors) and wine sales, controlling for other variables that could influence wine sales.

The authors found that both bottle and dollar sales were higher when tasting sheets without sensory descriptors were used, with dollar sales statistically significant at the 10 percent level. Other variables that impacted wine sales included the specific tasting room, the day of the weekend, and festivals occurring in the area.

Many tasting rooms, particularly in New York, rely on the tasting room for the majority of wine sales. Determining factors that affect sales can help tasting room managers/owners optimize the tasting room experience for maximized profits.

While there have been studies involving the impact of descriptors on sales of food and wine products, these studies have all taken place in a grocery store or restaurant setting where many different brands and varieties are offered. There has been no research studying the impact of descriptors on wine sales in the tasting room, where tasters have a limited selection and an option to sample products before purchasing. There has also been little research studying aspects of tasting sheets.

The purpose of this study is to compare satisfied and non-satisfied customers in the context of wine tasting rooms using the SERVQUAL model and to examine the relationships in the model in terms of service experience to better understand customer needs.

The data used in this study were derived from a survey conducted among wineries in British Columbia, Canada. Analysis of survey results using the partial least squares structural equation modeling was undertaken. Sample size was 402.

The findings show that the SERVQUAL constructs that had the most impact on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction were tangibility and assurance. Somewhat surprisingly, the perceived value for money construct was not significantly related to customer satisfaction but was significantly related to repurchase intent. Furthermore, all SERVQUAL constructs, except the reliability construct, were significantly related to customer satisfaction.

This study provides an overview of how wineries can improve their services to increase the number of satisfied customers.

Relying on importance–performance theory, this paper uses a distinctive statistical analysis instrument to investigate the importance and performance of crucial wine tasting room constructs and indicators with a purpose to make real and tangible recommendations for wine tasting room managers to improve the winery visit experience.

The surveys (N = 402) were conducted among 14 wineries in British Columbia, Canada. The data was analysed by using partial least squares structural equation modelling software SmartPLS with importance–performance functionality embedded in it.

The findings indicate the importance and performance of the service quality constructs, assurance, empathy, reliability, responsiveness, and tangibility and their respective indicator variables in importance–performance map analysis (IPMA). The responsiveness construct showed the highest need for improvement in terms of performance of exogenous service quality constructs in wine tasting rooms. Empathy, value for money and reliability constructs got “no change” recommendation and “tangibility” and “education” recommendation. The assurance construct was not significantly related to customer satisfaction and was not included in the IPMA analysis.

The approach provides an easy to use and visual tool for wineries to assess the importance and performance of the various service quality elements. The tool provides the management of wineries guidance for the identification of strategic areas of service quality improvement.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on both the sales effects of free wine tastings and the effects on attitudes towards future purchases four weeks after the tastings.

Store scanner data for the four weeks before and after each of ten wine tastings are used to measure the effect tastings had on sales. A total of 170 consumers, who attended a free tasting in wine shops across 4 cities, are interviewed as they leave the store and 37 of these consumers respond to a call back survey one month after the free tasting.

Scanner data shows a 400 per cent increase in sales of the wines tasted on the day of tasting, and a small but significant effect on sales during the four weeks afterwards. The survey shows that there is no difference in purchasing between those attending a tasting with the intention to purchase and those just stopping by. Both groups purchase at about the same rate. Only about 33 per cent of the attendees purchase; the other two‐thirds are boozing.

Free tastings boost immediate sales just like most price promotions, but the effect on the intention to purchase is stronger for those who made a purchase. The study is conducted in one country among a small number of buyers, which limits its generalisability.

The results and implications of this research can be used by retailers and wine companies to make more informed decisions about free tastings. From this small study, attracting the maximum number of tasters to increase sales and long‐term purchasing intentions would be recommended.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the tasting room for wineries from a re‐developing Spanish wine region, and identify the challenges winery owners currently face in their pursuit to market their wines through the tasting room.

Between May and June of 2007 a total of 23 winery owners, managers and wine makers located in the Canary Islands were interviewed from a sample of 61 wineries identified in Tenerife and La Palma islands.

The findings confirm the vital importance of the tasting room as a marketing, branding, and educative vehicle for the wine product. Overall, wineries focus on the tasting room as a way to advertise and present their wines to visitors and passers by as part of a long‐term strategy, rather than as a way to make direct wine sales.

It is acknowledged that the sample of only 23 participating businesses may not be enough to make generalisations about the impact of the tasting room on wineries of the Canary Islands. However, the sample does provide useful insights into the benefits, issues and challenges of the tasting room in this context.

The findings demonstrate the innovative and proactive spirit of winery management, including the push for quality and educating visitors, as key to survival and success in this very competitive industry. In this process, the role of the tasting room becomes critical to achieve those objectives.

The study provides new insights into the role of the tasting room in a Spanish wine region that has received very limited attention. The exploratory nature of this study also provides an avenue for future studies into an industry that is growing around a region's main income magnet: tourism.