Global Pinot Noir: A Preliminary Assessment of Competitiveness Among Wine Firms within Three Countries (Copy)
David Priilaid
Nicolas Depetris-Chauvin
nicolas.depetris-chauvin@hesge.ch
Antoine Pinède
Aim: Employing performance indicator data from a comprehensive winery-level survey, we examine the competitive drivers of 150 producers of Pinot Noir operating within varying terroir across three countries, namely: France (Burgundy, n=86), New Zealand (n=36) and South Africa (n=28).
Method: We use Hierarchical Linear Modeling, with wineries grouped within subregions (terroirs) and subregions nested within countries. Controlling for hierarchical variance disentangles winery-level competitive-effects from broader country-level influences like terroir.
Results: Five indicators were modelled:
1. Price of wines above USD 40.
2. Average Vivino winery rating
3. Highest Vivino wine rating
4. Perceived competitiveness.
5. Export volume.
Significant variables per model:
1. Prices above USD 40: grape sorting, marketing focus on quality, human capital and equipment index increase the likelihood winery sells wine above USD 40.
2. Average Winery Rating: winery size, grape sorting, use of French barrels, and vertical integration positively impact average Vivino ratings.
3. Highest Wine Rating: winery size and grape sorting are the only significant variables to explain the rating of the highest rated wine of winery in Vivino.
4. Perceived competitiveness: winery size, experience (with negative coefficient), green harvest and equipment index affect the perceived competitiveness of the winery.
5. Export volume: share of output sold in international markets increases with the winery size, the experience of the winery and the human capital index but decreases with the level of vertical integration.
Hierarchical dependencies: across the five models, significant hierarchical variance is identified only in the first model (Prices above USD 40) where:
· Country-level variance is negligible
· 50.4% of the variation in the probability of High Price is explained by differences between subregions (terroirs) within countries.
· Winery specific characteristics account for almost 50% of the variability.
David Priilaid, Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town’s School of Management Studies, has over 25 years of experience specializing in wine-food econometrics, consumer behavior, and creativity. His research is featured in leading journals, including British Food Journal, Food Quality and Preference, Frontiers in Psychology, the International Journal of Wine Business Research, and the Journal of Wine Research.
Nicolás Depetris-Chauvin, Associate Professor at HES-SO Geneva, specializes in wine economics, focusing on quality differentiation, origin biases, and sustainability. He has taught at institutions like Oxford and UC Berkeley. Leading an international research project, he created the first global database of 5,300 wine businesses across 23 countries, collaborating with local industry stakeholders and the International Organisation of Vine and Wine.
Antoine Pinède is a researcher at the Haute Ecole de Gestion de Genève, where he coordinates a network of researchers specializing in the wine industry. He designs surveys and experiments, analyses data, and writes reports on production and commercialization strategies. He regularly presents his findings at conferences of European and American wine economics associations.