A new approach using consumers' ‘drinking histories’ to explain current wine acceptance

Through habit formation and the acquisition/reinforcement of liking for alcoholic beverages over time, consumption and exposure may shape wine sensory preferences. Aiming to evaluate whether consumers' current red and white wine sensory hedonic likings may be explained by their previous (and/or ongoing) alcoholic beverage consumption and behaviour (‘drinking history’), participants from a ‘drinking history’ study (divided into 2 age groups: 30–40 y and 50–60 y) evaluated 9 red (N = 135) and 9 white (N = 148) wines covering two sensory dimensions: sweet–not-sweet and light–heavy. Multiple regression analysis included consumption and behavioural variables from different periods of participants' ‘drinking histories’ as independent variables and showed that the sweet–not-sweet dimension is more likely to be influenced by ‘drinking histories’. Current wine acceptance depends on consumption patterns (previous drinking history’ phase for white wine and ongoing phase for red wine) and recent behaviour, particularly for the older group. Consumers' preference moves first over the sensory dimension from sweet to not-sweet and later along the sensory dimension light–heavy.

► Evaluative reactions to sensory features are not fixed but the product of learning.
► Current wine sensory acceptance is a function of consumers’ ‘drinking histories’.
► Preference moves first over dimensions sweet–not-sweet and later over light–heavy.
► The first study to relate ‘drinking history’ with current wine sensory preference.