Do Tasting Notes Add Value? Evidence from Napa Wines*

Carlos Ramirez

Journal of Wine Economics, 2010, vol. 5, issue 1, 143-163

Abstract: This paper evaluates whether tasting notes—the brief testimony that describes the sensory properties of wines—add value. The analysis is based on a sample of over 2700 recent-vintage cabernet sauvignon wines evaluated by Wine Spectator. I estimate a dynamic wine price model to evaluate the marketing effect of the note, controlling for quality measures as well as other wine characteristics. The results indicate that the length of the tasting note exerts a strong positive influence on the wine's price, even after controlling for quality. A 10 percent increase in the number of characters in the tasting note (about 23 additional characters) contributes about two to four dollars to the price of the wine. Further analysis reveals that the value of the tasting note does not come from the “analytical” words contained in the note but rather, from the more subjective component of it. (JEL Classification: L66, L11, C23)

Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/ ... type/journal_article link to article abstract page (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cup:jwecon:v:5:y:2010:i:01:p:143-163_00

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Wine Economics from Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Kirk Stebbing ().