Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-4hvwz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-25T22:00:15.682Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Price and Quality in the California Wine Industry: An Empirical Investigation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2012

Tony Lima
Affiliation:
California State University, East Bay, 25800 Carlos Bee Boulevard,Hayward, CA 94542. Email: tony.lima@csueastbay.edu.

Abstract

This paper examines price and quality in the California wine industry using medals won in nine tasting events in 1995 as indexes of quality. For each tasting event, there were four possible medals: double gold, gold, silver, and bronze. Using stepwise least squares regression analysis, we estimate hedonic price functions for the 1884 wines in our sample treating quality as exogenous to price. We also look at results for some wine types, including chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. The results are largely as expected. The San Francisco Wine Competition appears to be the best predictor of quality with the Orange County and Sacramento (California State Fair) competitions the second best predictors of quality. (JEL Classifi cation: D4, L6)

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © American Association of Wine Economists 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Combris, P., Lecocq, S., and Visser, M. (2000). Estimation of a hedonic price equation for Burgundy wine. Applied Economics, 32, 961967.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Combris, P., Lecocq, S., and Visser, M. (1997). Estimation of a hedonic price equation for Bordeaux wine: Does quality matter? Economic Journal, 107, 390402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Devine, T. and Devine, J.T., ed. (1996). California Wine Winners, 1996 edition. Sebastopol, CA: Varietal Fair.Google Scholar
Lamb, C. (2005). Wine technology. Lincoln University, Christchurch, New Zealand, February 28, 2005. http://www.lincoln.ac.nz/story1773.html. Accessed August 19, 2006.Google Scholar
Lecocq, S. and Visser, M. (2006). What determines wine prices: Objective vs. sensory characteristics. Journal of Wine Economics, 1, 4256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oczkowski, E. (1994). A hedonic price function for Australian premium table wine. Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 38, 93110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shield, M. and Meyer, P. (1991, 1992). The Penguin Good Australian Wine Guide. 1991 and 1992 editions. Ringwood, Australia: Penguin.Google Scholar