Impact of Wine Education on Developing Knowledge and Preferences: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Wine is challenging and, at times, intimidating for consumers. Their lack of knowledge in making wine choices may result in less wine consumption and very little experimentation. This study explores wine education courses and whether these courses change consumers' knowledge and preferences about wine. The results showed that what participants actually knew about wine increased after completing a wine education course, but what participants' believe they knew, or self-assessed, did not. Furthermore, the anticipated change in participants' preferences for particular wine styles after completion of the course did not occur. The consumers' rankings of the wines did, however, decrease after their completion of the wine education course.