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Splendide Mendax: False Label Claims About High and Rising Alcohol Content of Wine*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2015

Julian M. Alston ,
Kate B. Fuller ,
James T. Lapsley ,
George Soleas  and
Kabir P. Tumber
Julian M. Alston*
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616.
Kate B. Fuller
Affiliation:
Montana State University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics, P.O. Box 172920, 309B Linfield Hall, Bozeman, MT 59717. Email: kate.fuller@montana.edu.
James T. Lapsley
Affiliation:
Agricultural Issues Center, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616. Email: jtlapsley@ucdavis.edu.
George Soleas
Affiliation:
Liquor Control Board of Ontario, 1 Yonge Street, 14th Floor, Suite 1401, Toronto, Ontario M5E 1E5. Email: george.soleas@lcbo.com.
Kabir P. Tumber
Affiliation:
ERA Economics, LLC, 1111 Kennedy Drive, Davis CA 95616. Email: kabir.tumber@gmail.com.
*
Email: julian@primal.ucdavis.edu (corresponding author).
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Abstract

Are wine alcohol labels accurate? If not, why? We explore the high and rising alcohol content of wine and examine incentives for false labeling, including the roles of climate, evolving consumer preferences, and expert ratings. We draw on international time-series data from a large number of countries that experienced different patterns of climate change and influences of policy and demand shifts. We find systematic patterns that suggest that rising wine alcohol content may be a nuisance by-product of producer responses to perceived market preferences for wines having more-intense flavours, possibly in conjunction with evolving climate. (JEL Classifications: D22, L15, L66, Q18, Q54).

Keywords

wine labelingfalse labelingalcohol contentclimate
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Wine Economics , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , December 2015 , pp. 275 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © American Association of Wine Economists 2015 

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Footnotes

*

Splendide mendax: Nobly untruthful; untrue for a good object. We are grateful for data provided by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. The work for this project was partly supported by the University of California Agricultural Issues Center, the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis, and the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics. We received helpful comments from various colleagues and conference participants, including Kym Anderson, Abhaya Dandekar, John Freebairn, Greg Jones, Alan Olmstead, Kevin Novan, Aaron Smith, Karl Storchmann, Daniel Sumner, Andrew Walker, and an anonymous referee.

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