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Problems with corks are a major issue in the wine industry. The key problem has been the lack of consumer acceptance of alternative closures. This research used an interview and survey approach with 200 wine shoppers in Australia to determine: 1) consumer perceptions of cork problems; 2) acceptance of a synthetic cork with no information provided; and 3) acceptance of a synthetic cork after providing information concerning cork problems and solutions. Consumers who purchased more than one bottle of wine per week had the most problems with corks, but 75% of all consumers interviewed had experienced some problems in the last 12 months. The provision of information was key in gaining consumer acceptance of the synthetic corks. Measures of which attributes of the synthetic corks attracted consumers is also provided along with recommendations for introducing these closures into the marketplace.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of wine closure types on the quality perception of wine consumers in a traditional wine market, combined with the willingness to pay for red and white wines in bottles closed with screw caps compared with that for wines in bottles with a cork closure.

An online experiment with 436 Austrian wine consumers was conducted in a two-by-two between-groups design. To assess the quality of Austrian red and white wine, quality indicators such as origin, grape variety, awards, the content of residual sugar, vintage, geographical indication, ageing potential, organic certification, vineyard designation and brand (producer) have been applied. Furthermore, different involvement levels as well as willingness to pay were taken into consideration.

Contrary to earlier findings, results confirm that Austrian consumers do not generally perceive wines (both red and white) in a screw cap bottle to be lower or different in quality from those in a cork-closed bottle. However, consumers expect red and white wines in bottles with a cork closure to be higher in price than wines in bottles with a screw cap. Among established quality indicators, the present analysis shows that price is the strongest cue for quality when it comes to wines and indicates that wines in bottles closed with corks and bearing a higher price tag are considered to be of higher quality.

This research comes with limitations, such as the absence of sensory differences. Moreover, the research design is based exclusively on the description of wines and a limited set of quality indicators and does not involve the actual tasting of wines.

Outcomes suggest that in the strategic positioning of wines, the difference in wine consumers’ quality perceptions between wine bottles with screw caps and cork closures plays a smaller role than anticipated. Findings are relevant for practitioners, particularly in old-world wine markets where cork is still seen as the closure of choice for higher-quality wines.

The results of this survey contribute to understanding consumers of an established old-world wine market and their attitudes towards alternative bottle closure types such as screw caps. It adds new insights to the research stream of the quality perception of wines.

Wine choices are not always fully understood by academic researchers or the industry. This paper aims to outline and test a theoretical model proposing that wine consumption may be dependent on differences in consumer expertise, the hospitality situation, characteristics of the wine itself and an interaction of these variables.

Three empirical studies (total sample size = 356) tested these theoretical propositions. Consumers with varying levels of wine knowledge were presented with experimental vignettes showing videos of wine opening and pouring and were asked to pair wines with hospitality situations.

Study 1 found that consumers with low product knowledge were more sensitive to hospitality situations and extrinsic product attributes (closures) than were the experts. Study 2 found that wine hospitality situations fall into three predicted categories, namely, food, friends and formality, although contrary to prediction, the presence of food was the weakest predictors. Study 3 demonstrated the robustness of the three-dimensional structure of wine hospitality situations.

These studies provided important practical information because targeting various market segments requires the industry to know what product attributes are favored by different groups of consumers different situations.

Previous researchers have discussed the difficulty of measuring consumption situations. By limiting these studies to wine consumption within hospitality situations, the authors learned much about how consumers’ characteristics, product attributes and the situations interact to influence not only product assessments but also choices.

Cork stoppers may taint as many as one in 33 bottles of all domestic US wines. Yet, because tradition is thought to play such an important role in shaping expectations regarding acceptable premium wine packaging, marketers have felt little need to test whether cork closures are indeed a critical consumer expectation. This paper serves as a guide toward understanding the obstacles which must first be overcome by those producers who wish to adopt cork substitutes for fine wines. This paper also offers insight into grappling with the implementation of problem solutions; shows why desirable solutions may not always be practical; and provides insight into why conflicting intrafirm departmental viewpoints, consumer expectations, and the competitive environment in which the firm or industry operates, can combine to lead the marketer to reject money‐saving superior product innovations. Preliminary work indicates that consumers reject label message conditions as a means of achieving acceptance of cork alternatives. The main objective of future research should therefore be to provide specific findings on how much positive and negative impact is likely to occur by changing the product design.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate consumers’ wine preferences, recycling attitudes and behaviors and socio-demographic data in an effort to build market segment profiles of those willing to transport wine bottles back to winery tasting rooms to be recycled, interest in standard-weight glass-alternative packaging and, various cork-alternative bottle closures.

A two-stage online survey was administered to 714 wine consumers residing in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA during two periods in March 2016. Exhaustive chi-square automatic interaction detector (ECHAID) decision tree predictive analysis was used to identify the market segments.

A majority of survey participants were willing to bring empty wine bottles to a winery for recycling (85 percent). Collectively, 77 percent of participants were members of just three of the eight segments developed using a decision tree predictive algorithm, with 90 percent of participants in these segments willing to bring empty wine bottles to a winery tasting room to be recycled. Two segments were comprised of Millennials and Generation X, and the third of Baby Boomers, two having a moderate to extreme interest in natural cork used to seal wine bottles, and similar.

An ECHAID classification tree method was used to develop eight consumer segments. Identifying characteristics that describe consumers likely to return empty wine bottles to a winery benefits recycling efforts and could possibly encourage additional sales.

The purpose of this paper is to show that consumer education in the form of information can effectively overcome adoption barriers to new and innovative wine packaging. This effectiveness depends on both the degree in packaging innovation and the level of consumer involvement.

The paper is based on an online experiment conducted with a sample of 427 German consumers to analyse the perception of consumers about innovative packaging. The experiment featured three different packaging options: bottles with screw-cap closures, bag-in-box and StackTek®. For each packaging form, a treatment group with additional information about the packaging and a reference group without this information were surveyed. ANOVA and t-tests were carried out to test the hypotheses. A moderated regression analysis was used to examine the effect of involvement in combination with information on intention to buy.

The results revealed that low-involvement consumers react positively to additional information about the benefits of a new packaging. For highly involved consumers, however, the effect of information is not significant. Furthermore, the analysis showed that low-involvement consumers mainly buy wine in supermarkets.

Information about new packaging forms should be presented in places where low-involvement consumers buy wine, such as at supermarkets. These consumers can be influenced by the additional information about the innovative packaging.

The use of a moderated regression analysis in the context of wine packaging and involvement is a first and reveals new and valuable insights.

This exploratory study aims to examine how wine stakeholders' are adopting innovative advancements in smart industry 4.0 application technology (SI4.0AT) coupled with electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) techniques to increase winery visitation and wine sales, prior to and during a global pandemic in the Yarra Valley in Victoria, Australia.

A qualitative interpretivist geographical bounded case study approach was used to collect data from fifteen Victorian wine stakeholder's prior to and during the global pandemic COVID-19. A thematic analysis was applied to interpret participant responses and how they viewed, reacted to and harnessed S14.0AT and e-WOM to continue and increase wine sales.

The findings suggest few wine stakeholders' were actively implementing SI4.0AT prior to the global pandemic, COVID -19. With the forced closure of wineries to visitors across Australia, most small to medium-sized wineries immediately changed their business models to concentrate on domestic e-commerce wine sales and home delivery. To support these new business models, e-WOM techniques were quickly adopted or increased whereas other S14.0AT technologies were not, due to financial restraints.

The number of participants used in this study is a limitation, however, this can be overcome by replicating this study in other wine regions. This research focused on the wine stakeholders' viewpoint only and may not be easily generalised. Future studies may examine the “what” aspect of SI4.0AT is being used and e-WOM content such as investigating what consumers are saying about these wineries, the method of communication and the motivations for consumers to engage with a winery.

The implications for the wine industry and overall results offer insight into the wine stakeholders' perceptions of SI4.0AT and e-WOM and consequent marketing strategy of wineries in the Yarra Valley, Victoria, both pre- and during forced face-to-face winery closures due to a global pandemic. Wineries need to continue to harness and leverage the benefits of e-WOM wine marketing in their marketing strategies and continue to explore the affordability of 4.0 app technology and Tourism 4.0 options.

This study is the first attempt at investigating how wine stakeholders' view; react to and harness SI4.0AT and e-WOM through formalised online marketing strategies which should continue to be investigated in the future.

The aim of this study is to analyse the importance of bottle design in relation to other purchasing criteria, and also to understand which design elements are most attractive to consumers.

A survey of a sample of 437 wine drinkers was carried out in Portugal using non-probabilistic sampling. The technique used was conjoint analysis based on the SPSS conjoint module.

One of the key findings was the low importance of bottle design in shaping consumer preferences compared to other attributes (origin, price and category of wine). In terms of design elements, the label had the biggest influence on consumer choice, followed by the type of bottle, bottle seal and brand name, in that order. Differences in consumer choice were evident according to the level of knowledge of wine and frequency of consumption.

The findings of this study provide guidance for Portuguese wineries as regards the marketing and design decisions of their products and packaging.

This study sheds new light on the importance of wine bottle design on consumer preferences. Previous studies in the area have proved to be minimal and heterogeneous.

The purpose of this paper is to discover the underlying motivations of Chinese wine consumption.

Qualitative focus group interviews were performed on 36 Chinese wine consumers and four focus groups were performed, with participants segmented into groups based on age and gender.

The main findings were that Chinese wine consumers are influenced by face and status. These issues may be affecting their wine consumption behaviours, particularly related to anomalous behaviours such as mixing red wine with lemonade and the rationale for the preference of cork‐closed wine bottles. Furthermore, the notion of wine consumption for health‐related purposes was uncovered and a linkage found with traditional Chinese medicine.

While research has been conducted on Chinese wine consumers, this paper attempts to uncover the underlying motivations for consumption and finds a linkage between wine consumption and traditional Chinese medicine. Furthermore, this paper links the traditions and beliefs of traditional Chinese medicine with a product category other than food or medicine.