The Economic Value of Wine Names That Reference Place in the US Market: Analysis of ‘Champagne’ and Sparkling Wine

Abstract

Place names or geographic indicators used to identify wines (or other products) have long been raised as major marketing and policy issues, but these have become even more important and more complex with increased globalisation. The issues arise especially for food and beverage products where characteristics of particular regions are most likely to imbue products with special characteristics that are difficult or impossible to duplicate outside the region of origin. With the spread of people and product styles, however, some place names have become used without clear association with geographic regions of origin. So, for example, one sees apartment buildings in Beijing, China, with the names Sonoma or Seville and one sees mustards with the name Dijon, even though neither the apartments nor the mustard has any connection to a place other than, perhaps, an approximation of a broad style.