French wine buyers’ expectations of an environmentally friendly wine

ABSTRACT Previous research on wine consumers’ attitudes, perceptions, and purchasing behavior regarding environmentally friendly wines has confirmed that consumers are interested in this type of wine but, have little awareness of environmental wine practices and certifications. To address this, the most common solution proposed has been to improve communication with consumers on this topic. However, few studies have questioned consumers about their expectations of environmentally friendly wines. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore wine buyers’ expectations of a wine that would be respectful of the environment. A second objective was to identify the respondent’s characteristics influencing their expectations. A textual analysis was conducted with respondents’ answers. A Reinert descendent classification, using Iramuteq software, distributed these responses into ten clusters. The term ‘respectful of the environment proved to be polysemic. Wine buyers imagined that an environmentally friendly wine would respect the health of both people and the environment, be ethically produced, and be accessible from a price point of view. Some respondents also mentioned hedonic characteristics. Highlights A lexical analysis identified ten clusters of topics mentioned by wine buyers. The term environment proved to be polysemic. Respondents expected a wine that would be ecofriendly, ethic, healthy, local and made with a limited use of inputs and additives. The age, the degree of involvement in wine and environmental issues and the use of an environmental label as a buying criterion, influenced wine buyers’ expectations. Non-wine consumers or respondents less involved in wine and in the environment, were more associated with a cluster regarding wine hedonic characteristics and price.