A survey of around 4,500 regular wine drinkers in the US found that the word most respondents associated with wine is “relaxed”.
Despite this, the survey also said that barriers to consumption in this group still existed.
The survey, organised by WineVision: American Wine in the 21st Century, an ad hoc strategic planning group, was conducted on-line and claims to be the largest independent market research poll ever done of wine consumers.
“While wine also has a high appeal as representing ‘the good life,’ it is more often associated by existing wine consumers with ‘time for myself’ and being a tool to use for a time to relax,” said John Hawkins, a researcher on the project.
“Many existing wine consumers appear not to view wine as ‘too formal,'” a view that other surveys show keeps consumers from drinking wine more often.
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By GlobalDataDespite the positive appeal of wine as a relaxing tool, existing consumers also face significant impediments to drinking wine at home, the survey concluded.
Two key barriers were doubts over the “freshness” of wine once it had been opened (i.e. will unused wine in a bottle taste as good after a day or two?) and concerns that individual consumers may be alone in their choice of wine as their beverage of choice at a given time, raising issues of bottle size and closures.
The survey is the first half of a two-part study. The second half will examine the behaviour of occasional drinkers so their responses can be compared and cross-indexed against the regular drinkers.
