Sensory, Affective, and Valuation Responses to no- and Low-Alcohol Wines: Evidence From a 400-Consumer Evaluation

Abstract

Growing consumer interest in moderation and alcohol-free drinking has accelerated the development of no- and low-alcohol (NOLO) wines, yet evidence remains limited on how consumers respond across market-realistic wine conditions that differ simultaneously in alcohol level and formulation. This study examined sensory, affective, hedonic, and valuation responses to commercial Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Merlot wines represented at 0%, 6%, and 13% ABV in a between-subjects evaluation involving 400 wine consumers. Because the products were commercially formulated rather than produced from a common base wine, alcohol-level condition is treated as a composite commercial-product factor rather than an experimentally isolated ethanol treatment. Two-way ANOVA and HC3-robust regression were used to examine overall liking, sensory attributes, emotions, purchase intention, willingness to pay (WTP), and consumption motives. Alcohol-level condition was associated with substantially larger differences in overall liking and purchase intention than varietal style, while its association with WTP was smaller. Sensory differentiation was attribute-specific: perceived warmth varied strongly across alcohol-level conditions, whereas astringency varied primarily across varietal styles. In the multivariable models, overall liking showed the strongest conditional association with both purchase intention and WTP among the measured consumer-response variables. These findings support sensory-value preservation as a useful framework for understanding commercial NOLO wine acceptance while avoiding causal attribution of the observed differences to ethanol concentration alone.