An Economist in Wine Country, The Economics of Wine

I’m spending the summer in Palo Alto and this weekend I plan to head out to a winery or two. So in preparation I was reading up on my wine economics. A good place to start is the Wine Economics blog, which has a few good posts on wine and economics. Only wish they would update more often.

Including one post on a recent study they pointed out shows that a wine’s price and its rating are not related in a blind tasting.

“The relationship between the price of wine and our evaluation of it is complex. These recent studies indicate that we shouldn’t let price information influence our decisions, but marketing experience shows that most of us do.”

Another good post discusses the positive impact of news stories on red wine's health benefits on red wine consumption found in a recent paper. The paper’s results suggest 25% of the increase in red wine consumption from 1991 to 1998 in Ontario, Canada is the result of health stories touting wine. The post also provides a nice general discussion about how changes in taste can impact demand.

So Cheers!