Hedonic Prices for Rosé Wines in Italian Supermarkets

The rosé wine market has increased in the last decade at both domestic and international level. Following this trend, Italy has strongly increased its production which is mainly exported on international markets, i.e., the growth of international demand is greater than domestic one. Notwithstanding, rosé wines have attracted the attention of retailers while the supply has improved (Ismea, 2008). The success of rosé wines has been accomplished by a greater space devoted to rosé wines in supermarkets since retailers are looking for high turnover products such as rosé wines which may improve the profitability of sales. This paper presents preliminary results of a hedonic price analysis aimed to analyze factors affecting the mechanism of price fixing for rosé wines in Italian supermarkets. An hedonic price analysis (using the natural log of price as dependent variable) has been carried out on 929 records by assessing four different models (all, still, semi-sparkling and sparkling wines). Results confirm the significant effect of intrinsic and extrinsic cues. Retail prices are affected by the point of sale (big supermarkets vs. discount or small ones), certification of origin (denomination of origin vs. table wines), type of wine (still vs. sparkling), sugar content (brut vs. extra dry), alcohol content (with a maximum for medium level) packaging (bottle vs. bag in box; dark glass vs. light one), blend (blend wines vs. no blend ones), price promotion, shelf strategies (position on the shelf, stock facings). However, the price effect is small since most of rosé are basic and popular premium wines. A deeper investigation on still vs. sparkling rosé wines has shown a better price performance of sparkling ones.