A question of style: an analysis of the use of the concept of style in the wine industry and research

The research aims to understand to what extent the concept of ‘style’ is used in the wine business and how this concept can be helpfully approached both in research and practice. A threefold study has been carried out: semi-structured interviews with renowned wine professionals; netnographic research on wine blogs in the US, France, and Italy; extensive review on academic literature. The results were jointly analyzed and compared. The main findings: style has become an ever increasingly important matter for both wine professionals and wine lovers, especially in upscale market segments; despite this importance, there is a lack of clear ideas about what wine style actually is and how to manage this tool. In the same way, even if in academic research on wine and wine business the concept of style is widely and increasingly used, to date no systematic attempts to develop a consistent and shared approach have been carried out by scholars. Given that it is an opinion shared by many in the wine industry that style and stylistic consistency can play a crucial role in defining wineries’ production and marketing strategies and policies, research can help develop tools that allow for codifying and better managing the wine style.