Vol. 12 No. 2 (2023)
Original Research Article

The grapes in Italian wines: assessing their value

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  • Anna Carbone,
  • Luisangela Quici,
  • Luca Cacchiarelli
Anna Carbone
DIBAF - University of Tuscia, Via San Camillo De Lellis snc, 01100, Viterbo
Luisangela Quici
DIBAF - University of Tuscia, Via San Camillo De Lellis snc, 01100, Viterbo
Luca Cacchiarelli
DIBAF - University of Tuscia, Via San Camillo De Lellis snc, 01100, Viterbo
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/wep-14593

Published 2023-12-31

Keywords

  • wine,
  • Italy,
  • grape variety,
  • Hedonic price model,
  • price premiums

How to Cite

Carbone, A., Quici, L., & Cacchiarelli, L. (2023). The grapes in Italian wines: assessing their value. Wine Economics and Policy, 12(2), 55–67. https://doi.org/10.36253/wep-14593

Copyright (c) 2023 anna carbone, Luisangela Quici, Luca Cacchiarelli

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The goal of this work is to assess the impact of grape varieties on the prices of Italian wines. As an important share of this wine is exported worldwide, we look at international markets. We gauge this influence by estimating a hedonic price model based on a sample of 2315 Italian still wines reviewed in Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. The work expands results offered in literature so far as it considers quite a large number of international national and autochthonous varieties used for producing both red and white wines. Moreover, we propose an original perspective by exploring the different impacts of ageing on wine prices according to the different grape varieties utilized. Results show that, besides the well-known Italian geographical divide, many grape varieties significantly associate with different price levels. Overall, this impact is larger in the case of red wines than for the white ones. Furthermore, for the formers there are few well known varieties associated with positive price premiums, while for white wines, less widespread autochthonous varieties gain higher prices. Last, we found that successful ageing process involve both native varieties of northern and southern Italy as well as international ones.

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