To wine or not to wine? A scientometric approach to 65+years of wine preference and selection studies

PURPOSE – Among the growing interest towards market segmentation and targeted marketing, the current study adopted a scientometric approach to examine the literature on wine selection and preferences. The current review specifically attempts to shed light on the research that explores the determinants of wine preferences at multiple levels of analysis. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – CiteSpace was used to compute a Document Co-Citation Analysis (DCA) on a sample of 114,048 eligible references obtained from 2,846 publications downloaded from Scopus on 24 May 2021. FINDINGS – An optimized network of 1,505 nodes and 4,616 links was generated. Within the network, impactful publications on the topic and thematic domains of research were identified. Specifically, two thematic macroareas were identified through a qualitative analysis of papers included in the 7 major clusters. The first one - “Methods of Wine Making” - included clusters #0, #3, #5, #6 and #18. The second one - “Consumers’ Attitudes and Preferences Towards Wine” - included clusters #1 and #2. The first thematic macro-area included more technical aspects referring to the process of wine making, while the second thematic macro-area focused more on the factors influencing individuals’ preferences and attitudes towards wine. To reflect the aims of the current paper, publications giving light to the “Consumers’ Attitudes and Preferences Towards Wine” macro-area were analyzed in detail. ORIGINALITY/VALUE – The resulting insights may help wine makers and wine sellers optimize their work in relation to market segments and to the factors influencing individuals’ purchasing behaviors.