Emerging Trends in the $450 Billion Wine Industry

Giacomo Negro is a professor of organization and management at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. He holds a PhD in management from Bocconi University where he also received a Laurea degree in economics and business. He recently published the book Wine Markets: Genres and Identities. 

According to Fortune, in 2020, the global wine market was valued at nearly $349 billion dollars. By 2028, it’s expected to grow exponentially – topping $450 billion. Wine market identities and genres play a key role in shaping the industry. Giacomo joined The Goizueta Effect Podcast to discuss the core audiences that impact how producers make and sell wine – and how wine communities react to evolving trends, like mixing genres. He also shed light on how organic and biodynamic farming are changing the way wine is produced and evaluated.  

What are Wine Genres and What Features Define Them? 

Wine has incredible diversity with hundreds of thousands of labels in the market introduced every year. Whether you are a producer or consumer, genres are useful in understanding and communicating about wine. They also affect how wines get interpreted, evaluated, and valued in the market – and serve as the building blocks of the collective market identities of producers.  

 

Key genre-defining feature may include region, grape, vintage, producer, effervescence, and source materials, among others.  

 

The Important Role of Terroir 

Terroir is the complete natural environment in which a particular wine is produced, including factors such as the soil, topography, and climate. Terroir can be a source of competitive advantage in the market to the extent that it identifies a unique place, both geographical and cultural, that is not possible to replicate or imitate. While locations are vital to the notion of terroir, the concept also includes the people that work in and inhabit these places and the history of the culture.  

 

What are Market Identities of Wine and Why Do They Matter? 

Market identities are different from brands. The two concepts are interconnected, but separate. A brand is created by a producer or an agency, while a market identity is attributed to a producer by an audience. A brand is fungible and can be purchased and sold, whereas a market identity cannot. Market identities are a sociological concept that the audience controls.  

 

Who are Key Audiences in the Wine Market? 

When referring to audience in the wine market, we are referring to those individuals and groups who screen and evaluate the products and services available. Several audiences have decisive influence including consumers, producers, and market intermediaries such as critics and retailers. State authorities also influence the market dictating rules of production.   

 

The Important Role of Intermediaries 

With producers changing practices all the time in response to shifts in climatic conditions and technical developments, wine is constantly changing. Without a base, wine quality can only be accessed accurately through consumption.  

 

Intermediaries have significant influence on these matters, especially for fine wine that requires more interpretation and more knowledge to be understood. 

 

One role that critics play is gatekeeping by narrowing the field of wines from hundreds of thousands to the top picks. Critics are also able to better evaluate features such as terroir with complex social context that require expert knowledge to decode.  

 

The Reaction of Communities to Shifting Wine Genres  

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