French wines on the decline? Econometric evidence from Britain

Abstract

French wines, differentiated by geographic origin, served for many decades as a basis for the French success in the British wine market. However in the early 1990s, market share began to decline. This article explores the values that market participants placed on labelling information on French wines in Britain in 1994. Results from a parametric hedonic approach indicate that both the lack of a consistently positive valuation of varietal wines and the low valuation of wines with geographical appellation help to explain the overall decline of France's role in the British wine market.