CZECH WINE CONSUMERS: MATURING WITH AGE?

The purpose of this study is to identify the most important motivations for drinking wine and the factors infl uencing wine purchase in the Czech Republic and to ascertain if there are signifi cant differences between genders and age groups. An online survey was conducted, using e-mail and social networks, of wine consumers in one of the 14 regions of the Czech Republic. This resulted in a sample of n=237. Spearman’s correlation test was conducted to fi nd correlations between wine consumption and age and the chi-square test for differences between genders. Four motivations were found to be signifi cantly correlated with age – to be sociable, to be respected, because wine is considered healthy and because it belongs with a nice meal, as well as seven factors affecting wine purchase – label, provenance, brand/producer, vintage, design of the bottle, recommendations of salesperson and a preference for the lowest priced wines. As the majority of respondents came from one of the 14 Czech regions, generalizations for the whole Czech Republic cannot be made. It is recommended that future work should include more complex segmentation. This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the Czech wine market, where very little research has been conducted so far, as well as by exploring the infl uence of age on the motivation for wine consumption.