Study Finds Online Popularity Does Not Lift Ratings for Italian Wine Appellations

A study published Wednesday in Wine Economics and Policy found that digital visibility for Italian wine appellations does not automatically translate into better consumer ratings or stronger value capture online, underscoring a gap between popularity, perceived quality and price in platform-driven markets.

The research, by Guenter Schamel, Giulia Gastaldello, Hugo Rodríguez-Gómez and Marta Fernández-Barcala, examined how regional reputation appears on Vivino, the wine review platform, and how that reputation relates to prices across geographical indications in Italy and Spain. The authors said they used a three-part framework to measure reputation: recognition, defined as the share of ratings; evaluative reputation, measured through average ratings; and market valuation, measured through average prices.

Using consumer data from 54 Italian geographical indications and 27 Spanish ones, the study found that those three dimensions are separate from each other rather than interchangeable. A wine region that attracts more online attention does not necessarily receive better scores from consumers. The paper also found that the link between ratings and prices may not move in a straight line, suggesting that higher scores do not always produce proportionally higher prices.

The findings add detail to a long-running debate in the wine business over the economic power of geographical indications, which are legal designations linking a product to a specific place and production rules. In Europe’s wine trade, those labels are often treated as shorthand for quality and authenticity. The new paper suggests that in digital marketplaces, that collective reputation is more complex and may not work the same way across awareness, evaluation and pricing.

For Italy, the study drew on data from 2,358 producers. For Spain, it covered 1,335 producers. Beyond comparing regions, the researchers also grouped producers into clusters and found substantial differences within the same geographical indication. That result points to uneven performance inside appellations that are often marketed as unified regional brands.

The paper said Italian wines in the sample generally commanded higher prices than Spanish wines even when ratings were broadly comparable. That finding suggests that consumers and sellers may attach different monetary value to country and regional signals beyond the score shown on a platform page.

The authors described their work as a consumer-based view of reputation in platform-mediated wine markets. Rather than relying on expert critics or official classifications alone, the study focused on data generated by users through ratings behavior and posted prices. That approach reflects the growing importance of online platforms in shaping wine discovery, comparison and purchase decisions.

The distinction between recognition and evaluative reputation may be especially relevant for producers seeking growth online. A region can be highly visible because it generates many reviews, wide distribution or frequent consumer searches, but that attention alone may not improve how drinkers judge the wines. At the same time, strong ratings may not be enough to secure higher prices if a region lacks broader market positioning or if price expectations are shaped by other signals.

That could matter for wineries, consortia and other beverage businesses that increasingly rely on digital channels to build brands and defend margins. The study points to a need to separate online popularity from actual reputation and from the ability to convert either one into higher prices. For operators in wine and other drinks categories, that distinction could affect how they invest in promotion, platform strategy and regional branding.

The paper was published as a “Just Accepted” original research article in a special issue on transforming wine value chains. Schamel is affiliated with the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, while Rodríguez-Gómez and Fernández-Barcala are affiliated with the University of Oviedo. The article’s DOI is 10.36253/wep-20085.

The study enters a field of research that has been paying growing attention to collective reputation in food and drink markets, especially where products are tied to origin labels. It also builds on recent work examining how online reviews influence revenue, pricing and consumer trust. In wine, where quality is difficult to judge before purchase and where labels, region names and scores can all shape decisions, digital platforms have become a major source of information as well as competition.

By separating recognition, ratings and prices into different dimensions, the researchers argued that regional reputation in online wine markets should not be treated as a single measure. Their results from Italy and Spain suggest that appellations may gain broad exposure without gaining stronger evaluations, and that price premiums may depend on more than consumer scores alone.