The meaning of the word elegance as a wine descriptor: Effect of expertise and wine type

The aim of the present study was to investigate the concept of elegance in wine as a function of (i) domain-specific expertise, and (ii) wine type, more specifically as applied to still wine and to sparkling wine. One hundred and fifty participants, classified into five categories depending on their wine-relevant expertise, completed an online questionnaire aimed at inducing verbal responses concerning their cerebral representations of elegance as applied to still wines and sparkling wines. The five participant categories comprised four expert groups, namely wine producer [30], wine writer/critics [30], sommeliers [30], wine merchant/seller [30], and a novice group of wine consumers [30]. Results showed that both professional and novice participants found the concept of 'elegance' applicable to both still wine and sparkling wine, evoking words and terms with reasonable consistency overall. Differences were found, both between participant groups and between wine types. After categorisation, significant differences between participant categories were found for two of the ten categories of words elicited for both inducing expressions. Extrinsic quality and intrinsic quality were significantly different across occupational categories for 'elegant in relation to wine'. Extrinsic quality was noticeably higher for consumers than the other participants while intrinsic quality appears more important to conceptualisations of wine elegance for wine writers/critics than it is for the other groups of participants. Concerning 'elegance in sparkling wine', extrinsic quality also showed significant differences across participant categories, being highly evoked by producers and merchants/sellers. The category context/analogy was significantly higher in consumers' associations and interestingly, lower in writer/critics' associations. These results support the notion that application of the term elegance as a wine descriptor is seen as appropriate by both wine professionals and wine consumers, suggesting that the term elegant when applied to either still or sparkling wine evokes a concept that is not idiosyncratic but that has a central structure shared by many wine professionals and consumers, the core of this structure including terms smooth, balanced, refined and complex.