The pricing of a high-end experience good in a very competitive and opaque market ::the case of Swiss fine wines

This article examines the price determinants of wine on the Swiss market using a hedonic regression approach. We find that grape varietals and wine growing regions have a large impact on prices. Growing Petite Arvine or growing wine in Valais or the Swiss German part of the country triggers a premium. Cultivating Pinot Noir or Gamay, or being located in Vaud or Geneva, prompts a discount. Positioning and being located in a renowned wine growing region further lead to higher prices. Information on producers, on the other hand, only marginally explains wine prices. High competition and production costs, coupled with the limited visibility of Swiss wines, result in prices that depend mostly on collective reputation effects and on specific types of cuvees/blends. Our results suggest that Swiss producers price their wines fairly uniformly