12 March 2014
Australians love visiting cellar doors and are likely to make a return visit within 12 months after their positive experience of the wine, scenery and local food, a national study has found.
The study, examining how cellar doors at Australian wineries influence consumers’ wine-buying behaviour, during a cellar door visit and afterwards, is painting an interesting picture of the Australian cellar door experience and visitor profile.
“We found visitors rated their overall experience at the cellar door as overwhelmingly positive, increasing their willingness to try, purchase and re-purchase wine,” University of South Australia research project leader from its Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, Professor Johan Bruwer said.
“The majority of visitors (53 per cent) said that they would visit the same cellar door again within the next 12 months and, given that only 40 per cent of the cohort had visited the cellar door before, this is a positive indicator of a growing base of loyal visitors.
“They rated the most important factors for their enjoyment of a winery visit as the wine (87 per cent), the scenery/natural environment (78 per cent) and the local food (58 per cent).
“Interestingly, about 75 per cent of visitors bought wine at the cellar door which they selected mostly to take home and enjoy.”
The study also found most cellar door visitors were Australian, with only six per cent of cellar door visitors from overseas.
“Not only are most of the visitors local, they are also influenced to attend wineries by their own local knowledge and knowledge of the winery brand, with 46 per cent of those surveyed saying word-of-mouth recommendation or informal sources influenced their choice of winery to visit,” said Prof Bruwer.
Researchers also found the typical cellar door visitor profile is female, a regular wine drinker, highly educated, has a small household and high income and is far more likely to be from an Australian capital city than another country.
The 3,600 cellar door visitors surveyed were mostly regular wine drinkers who drank red (49 per cent), white (35 per cent), and sparkling wine (10 per cent).
Some 79 wineries across 15 wine regions in all six states are participating in the University of South Australia and Charles Sturt University study, funded by the Grape and Wine Research and Development Corporation (GWRDC).
UniSA media contact: Michèle Nardelli office: 08 8302 0966 mobile: 0418 823 673 email: Michele.nardelli@unisa.edu.au
GWRDC Media contact: Abbey Flanagan office: 08 8273 0500 mobile: 0401 082 124 email: abbey@gwrdc.com.au
