Feast for the senses: leveraging culture as a competitive advantage in the wine sector

In the wine sector, opportunities exist to augment the wine offering with a range of cultural products and activities available at the cellar door or vineyard, with a view to creating a hedonistic consumer experience. The assumption is that drinking premium wine, consuming fine food and attending cultural events is an attractive offering, particularly for the middle-aged, educated, and high-income segment. In this paper we explore how and why wine producers adopt this marketing strategy, through the use of four pilot case studies. Preliminary findings suggest that leveraging culture allows wine producers to enhance the wine tasting experience, attract a wider range of consumers, and extend and diversify their brand.