People often choose wine based on the grape variety and the place it was grown. Radishes do not inspire the same attachment, and that difference helps explain a growing challenge for the wine industry.
As temperatures rise, wine growers may need to change the grapes they grow or even move to new regions.
But wine drinkers are often attached to familiar grape varieties and famous wine regions.
A new study from Cornell University explores this challenge and shows that the biggest factor may not be the changing climate itself, but how consumers respond to these changes.
Why wine is different
A vegetable farmer can switch crops and lose almost nothing. A wine grower cannot.
The grape and the region are half the product, and people refuse to let go of them.
Scientists have bred tougher vines for a hotter world, but few growers plant them, because buyers keep reaching for familiar names.
“Wine grapes are unique in that people are very attached to certain cultivars and the sense of the place where they come from,” said Justine E. Vanden Heuvel, professor of horticulture and one of the study’s authors.
“That’s not true with most other crops. Do you care where your radish comes from?”
Buyers love tradition
That attachment shows up at every price level.
“Wine around the world has this tradition of having on the label the name of the grape and where it came from,” said Bradley Rickard, professor of food and agricultural economics.
“Even inexpensive box and jug wine has the name of grape and place of origin on the front, and even among less-sophisticated consumers, there’s recognition of that.
“This paper is trying to understand if changing anything about that formula – whether the grape, the location or the production method – can affect what consumers are willing to pay.”
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