Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T16:14:26.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Natural Endowments, Production Technologies and the Quality of Wines in Bordeaux. Does Terroir Matter?*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2012

Olivier Gergaud  and
Victor Ginsburgh
Olivier Gergaud
Affiliation:
University of Reims (Troyes Institute of Technology) and Reims Management School.
Victor Ginsburgh
Affiliation:
ECARES, Brussels and CORE, Louvain-la-Neuve.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We study whether quality assessments made by wine experts and by consumers (based on prices obtained at auction between 1980 and 1992), can be explained by variables describing endowments (land characteristics, exposures of vineyards) and technologies (from grape varieties and picking, to bottled wines). However, since technological choices are likely to depend on endowments, the effects can only be identified using an instrumental variables approach. We show that technological choices affect quality much more than natural endowments, the effect of which is negligible. (JEL Classification: L66, Q12, Q13, Q16)

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Wine Economics , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 2010 , pp. 3 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © American Association of Wine Economists 2010

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

Angrist, J. and Krueger, A. (2001). Instrumental variables and the search for identification: from supply and demand to natural experiments, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 15, 69–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashenfelter, O., Ashmore, D. and Lalonde, R. (1995). Bordeaux wine vintage quality and the weather. Chance, 8, 7–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashenfelter, O. (1998). Using the hedonic approach to infer optimum vineyard locations for grape planting, paper presented at the VDQS meeting, Thessaloniki.Google Scholar
Ashenfelter, O. and Storchmann, K. (2006). Using a hedonic model of solar radiation to assess the economic effect of climate change: The case of the Mosel valley vineyards. Working Paper 12380, National Bureau of Economic Research.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barham, E. (2003). Translating terroir: the global challenge of French AOC labelling, Journal of Rural Studies, 9, 127–138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bettane, M. and Desseauve, T. (2000). Le classement des vins et domaines en France 2001. Paris: Editions de la Revue du Vin de France.Google Scholar
Broadbent, M. (1991). The new great vintage wine book. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Di Vittorio, A. and Ginsburgh, V. (1996). Des enchères comme révélateurs du classement des vins. Journal de la Société Statistique de Paris, 137, 19–49.Google Scholar
Efron, B. and Tibshirani, R.J. (1998). An introduction to the bootstrap. London: Chapman & Hall/CRC.Google Scholar
Ginsburgh, V., Monzak, M. and Monzak, A. (1994). Red wines of Médoc: what is wine tasting worth. Verona: Vineyard Data Quantification Society.Google Scholar
Krug, H. and Krug, R. (1979). L'art du Champagne. Paris: R. Laffont.Google Scholar
Lecocq, S. and Visser, M. (2006). Spatial variations in weather conditions and wine prices in Bordeaux. Journal of Wine Economics, 2, 114–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maddala, G.S. (1985). Limited-dependent and qualitative variables in econometrics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Parker, R.M. (1985). Bordeaux, the definitive guide for the wines produced since 1961. New-York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
Parker, R.M. (1990). Les vins de Bordeaux. Paris: Solar.Google Scholar
Tinlot, R. (2001). Le terroir: un concept à la conquête du monde. Revue des Œnologues et des Techniques Vitivinicoles et Œnologiques, 101, 9–11.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. (1998). Terroir: The role of geology, climate and culture in the making of French wines. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar