Insights on Wine Connoisseurs for the Wine Tourism Industry

This article suggests that studying wine culture may help to further understand wine tourism. The broader culture of wine consumption has an influence on the motivation and interest that people have for visiting a wine region or a winery. This study takes an anthropological approach to wine consumption culture and identifies specific topics of interest that connoisseurs find in wine and that may be relevant to wine tourism. The study is based on fieldwork and interviews with wine connoisseurs from Montreal (Canada). It identifies four main dimensions through which people engage with wine. The first factor concerns the formal discoveries offered by wine, the second, its social and cultural significance, the third, its producers and their values, and the fourth, the experimentation of theoretical knowledge in the context of wine regions. Each of these four dimensions offers a means for better understanding the visitor experience at wineries.