Geographical indications (GIs) are information signals based on a product’s geographical origin. They reduce information asymmetry for consumers and protect producers from imitation. This paper examines the local economic impact of GIs by focusing on the renowned Champagne AOC in France. Champagne is protected under the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC), the EU’s strongest GI classification. My identification strategy leverages the fact that the municipal-level boundary of the Champagne AOC was historically determined by political decisions, rather than viticultural qualities (i.e., terroir). Using granular geographic, economic, and fiscal data, I provide causal evidence that this institutional protection improves local economic outcomes beyond the wine sector. Despite a sharp increase in vineyard prices over the past two decades, there is no evidence of crowding out of other economic activity over time. These findings suggest that the projected expansion of the Champagne AOC could stimulate further regional economic development for newly admitted municipalities.

This paper examines the impact of Sunday blue law reforms on small-scale wineries in the United States. Using establishment-level data from 2000 to 2020, we employ an event-study framework to analyze the impact of changes in Sunday alcohol sales regulations across states on the performance of small wineries. We find that deregulation is associated with substantial declines in the performance of small wineries. On average, sales fell by 25.5%, employment declined by 7.8%, and survival rates dropped by 5.2% following the repeal of Sunday sales restrictions. These adverse effects are particularly pronounced among the smallest wineries and those located in metropolitan counties. The results suggest that while deregulation increased consumer access to alcohol on Sundays, it also intensified competition from large-scale retail outlets, thereby undermining the direct-to-consumer sales channels that are critical to small wine producers.

This research explores the factors that influence the adoption of barrel-aging techniques by US-based craft brewers from 2008 to 2014. Particular focus is placed on the importance of influence from geographically close peer breweries as a way to understand the effects of local influence or knowledge spillovers from agglomeration. Combining data on brewery-level production and estimates of the timing of the release of barrel-aged (BA) beers, I find evidence that nearby releases of BA beers increase the likelihood of a brewery introducing its first BA beer. However, national trends appear to be a stronger influence. These effects are robust to estimating on subsamples of brewery and metro sizes and controlling for a local demand proxy.

This paper examines the impact of shared religious composition on global wine trade. We assembled a novel dataset of bilateral wine trade flows and country-level religious affiliation for 102 countries from 1988 to 2023. Our theory-consistent gravity estimates show that a greater common share of Protestant denominations between trading partners is associated with increased bilateral wine trade. In contrast, a higher share of Other Christian denominations is associated with lower trade intensity. To quantify the implications of religious similarity for global wine trade, we conducted a general equilibrium simulation. We find that increasing global alignment in the Protestant denomination would reduce trade costs more than eliminating all global tariffs, with major exporters seeing export gains up to 205.9%. These findings suggest that cultural factors, long treated as secondary, play a central role in shaping trade integration and should be considered alongside standard trade policy tools.

Viticulture is essential for reducing pesticide use and associated risks. Often the adoption of individual pesticide reduction measures is investigated in isolation, and little is known on broader patterns and the joint adoption of measures. We address this gap by analyzing adoption choices of Swiss grape growers across a large number of pesticide reduction measures, using a contingency analysis and a k-means clustering algorithm. We focus on how measure, farm, and farmer characteristics correlate with this adoption. The analysis uses survey data collected among 436 Swiss grapevine producers. Results indicate that farmers in our sample appear to exploit complementary effects between measures. Moreover, the cluster analysis reveals that Swiss producers can be split into two groups of roughly equal size, with one adopting a greater variety of pesticide reduction measures, and the other relying more on pesticides alone. We further identify significant differences in farm and farmer characteristics that could explain this variation in measure adoption. Our analysis has important implications for research and policy. Firstly, they underline the importance of fostering the adoption of efficient and effective measure bundles. Secondly, they highlight the need for targeted policies to mobilize farmers relying mostly on pesticides to diversify their plant protection practices and thus contribute to overall pesticide reduction.

This paper analyzes the impact of product-market fit on firms’ export performance, focusing specifically on the case of wineries. To this end, we use a representative sample of Spanish wineries and data on 49 export markets. The empirical analysis is based on a firm heterogeneity model that integrates both macroeconomic and firm-level factors influencing wine export performance. Our findings indicate that a good product–market match facilitates export activity and can mitigate traditional barriers to international trade, such as geographic or political distance. When a winery conducts effective market research and identify markets where consumer preferences align closely with the characteristics of its products, its export performance improves significantly.

This study uses a basket-based choice experiment with 2,010 U.S. adults to analyze alcohol and cannabis preferences in social settings following cannabis legalization. Through descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic modeling, we highlight the heterogeneous preferences consumers have for alcohol and cannabis products. Specifically, we demonstrate that a substantial portion of the survey respondents prefer to consume these substances together in social settings, while others view them as independent markets. Regression analysis then reveals that males and younger consumers are most likely to bundle these substances, while personality traits also correlate with expected simultaneous substance use. These results offer valuable insights to improve public health policy and messaging on the potential short- and long-term risks associated with cosubstance use.

Technological similarity enables wine operators to share best practices, benchmark against industry standards, and identify new areas of innovation. Despite this, measuring similarity is notoriously challenging. In this paper, I use sentence embeddings on wine patent data to show how similarity compares across different models. I validate the results both internally and externally, showing large discrepancies in annual trends. The results underscore the importance of selecting suitable models for market assessment, providing a valuable primer for both wine operators and technologists.

Sums of the ratings that judges assign to wines are a near universal method of determining the winners and losers of wine competitions. Sums are easy to calculate and easy to communicate, but seven flaws make sums of ratings a perilous guide to relative quality or preference. Stars & Bars combinatorics show that the same sum can be the result of billions of compositions of ratings and that those compositions, for the same sum, can contain dispersion that ranges from universal consensus to apparent randomness to polar disagreement. Order preference models can address both order and dispersion, and an example using a Plackett–Luce model yields maximum likelihood estimates of top-choice probabilities that are a defensible guide to relative quality or preference.

Fungus-resistant grape varieties (FRGVs) offer considerable ecological and economic benefits through reduced fungicide use, yet their cultivation remains limited. Due to the unfamiliarity of these varieties, marketing them is challenging. This study investigates the pricing and presence of FRGVs in the German high-priced wine segment. The aim is to uncover differences in the value-giving attributes of wines from FRGVs and conventional varieties. A hedonic price model was applied to multiyear (2016–2024) data from the renowned German wine guide “Der Eichelmann” using both OLS and quantile regression (n ≈ 73,800). Our results show that FRGVs are currently only marginally represented in the wine guide. Of the 36 FRGVs authorized in Germany, wines made from only 5 of those varieties appear in noteworthy quantities. FRGVs achieve, ceteris paribus, implicit price premiums compared to conventional varieties. However, as FRGVs are predominantly marketed by wineries with lower reputations and tend to receive lower expert ratings, their average price is below that of conventional varieties. The findings underscore the need for targeted marketing strategies that effectively communicate the sustainability benefits of FRGVs, strengthen credibility through reputable producers, and concentrate on “flagship varieties” to facilitate market penetration.

Using Wine Spectator’s Top 100 lists for 1988–2025, this note applies Bai–Perron structural break tests to regional and country shares and identifies three distinct periods: 1988–1997, 1998–2015, and 2016–2025. Real prices decline across phases, with the sharpest drop in the most recent period, while scores remain stable and concentration falls sharply between the first two periods and then levels off. Turnover also declines in the most recent period, indicating reduced year-to-year movement in regional representation. Robust regressions confirm that prices are lower in periods with lower concentration. The findings extend earlier JWE studies by providing a longer horizon and a structural break perspective on long-run changes in representation and pricing.

Pinot Noir is rapidly increasing its share of the global vineyard bearing area and being grown in an increasing number of regions and wider range of climates. This article seeks to better understand why. Recently updated data on winegrape bearing area in the world’s winegrape regions reveal the extent of those trends, and basic economic data on gross revenue per vineyard hectare are compiled to help understand them in Australia and California. In both jurisdictions, Pinot Noir enjoys prices above the average for other varieties in each region, and proportionately more so within hot inland regions than within cooler regions. Moreover, in some key cooler regions with more-appropriate terroir, gross revenue per vineyard hectare is nonetheless below that in hot regions because of much lower yields. If the cost of production per hectare is higher in the smaller vineyards in cool regions, then it would further weaken their comparative advantage. Should the retail prices of Pinot Noir-based wines reflect the winegrape prices in the various regions reviewed, the very wide range of the latter suggests that younger/less-affluent wine consumers are able to enjoy the variety earlier than they would have in the absence of Pinot Noir plantings in warm regions.

In two studies with 1,275 participants, we examine how values are associated with wine cues and how these associations shape selection across private and professional contexts. Building on signaling theory and identity economics, we propose a utility framework in which choice utility is a context-dependent function of alignment with the private self (personal values), the professional self (role values), and anticipated reputational returns to identity signaling. Signal interpretability depends on a shared code in which observable cues carry similar meanings for senders and receivers. Drawing on Schwartz's value theory, we find evidence that participants systematically attribute distinct values to three observable cues—bottle appearance, short narratives, and tasting notes. Our findings show that in private settings, individuals favor wines linked to self-transcendence and openness to change, whereas in professional settings they prefer wines associated with self-enhancement and conservation. These cross-context patterns suggest that observing wine choice provides a novel tool for researchers to indirectly assess both personal and work-related values. In this respect, our approach relates to revealed preference theory, which infers individual preferences from observed choices.