(Academicwino) - Over the years, we’ve seen a proliferation of the number of wine competitions and wine awards that are out there.  Many years ago, there might have been just a small handful of competitions, while nowadays, it is impossible to keep track of how many are out there.  It appears everyone and their mother has hosted a wine competition, and often all it takes to win a medal is to show up and don’t make the judges spit the wine back out in disgust.

When attempting to select a wine(s) at the store, many studies have examined the effect of extrinsic cues (i.e. brand, vintage, grape(s), country of origin, other label information) on wine selection and purchase, with wine awards included in those cues.  The results, so far, have been mixed. Some studies have found that wine awards are relatively low on the scale of importance, while others found wine awards much higher on this scale when it comes down to wine purchase selection.

So, are displaying wine awards on a bottle of wine effective in getting people to purchase the wine?  Or do people not care? Or does the overabundance of wine awards actually turn people off from buying a given wine? The answer, according to a new study published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, is somewhat complicated, and is not an all-or-nothing sort of thing.