Generational Cohort’s Wine Choice: Is Terroir a Significant Factor?

This paper explores what wine characteristics generational cohorts consider important, if terroir elements are among them, and if generational cohort differences exist. Research was conducted with 366 participants rating 44 wine-related items for their importance on a 7-point Likert-type scale. Results revealed that six items (out of 44) were considered as important (MS > 5.00) by cohorts when choosing a wine. Factor analysis reduced items to four dimensions, i.e., “Core terroir”, “Product outcome”, “Human terroir and gastronomy” and “Communication terroir”. One-way Anova based on the four dimensions showed no cohort differences regarding wine characteristics considered important. This study contributes to previous research by providing useful information on the perceived importance of wine characteristics of four generational cohorts which is an understudied topic.