Consumer Knowledge and Preferences for Organic and Sustainably Certified Wines: Lessons from the DACH Region—Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Abstract

The DACH geographic region comprises three countries in central Europe: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This study seeks to both understand the motivations for purchasing organic and sustainably certified wines in this region and identifies which type of consumer should be targeted for the continued growth of this wine sector. Our methodology includes an online questionnaire resulting in a sample size of 4553 respondents, evenly broken down by country. Our analysis includes simple statistics and more advanced statistical analysis of the dataset. Our results indicate that there is a correlation between wine knowledge, environmental awareness, and the likelihood of buying eco-certified wines. We find that those who are self-proclaimed wine experts have a higher willingness to pay for organic or sustainable certified wines. These customers are generally middle aged, most often male, live in multi-person households, have pursued some level of higher education, and many are self-employed. We believe this study captures the growing trend of organic and sustainable wine certifications. It also identifies who is already convinced and who will need more marketing/education before they are ready to buy organic or sustainable wine.