Consumer decision-making in the wine market: insights from the Valencian Community

Purpose This study explores wine consumer preferences in the Valencian Community through a territorial and segmented lens. While wine consumption has been widely examined, no research has systematically compared the provinces of Valencia, Castellón and Alicante. The aim is to identify key wine attributes, interprovincial differences and distinct consumer segments. Design/methodology/approach A survey was administered to 504 wine consumers across the three provinces of the Valencia Community. Best–Worst Scaling (BWS) was applied to measure the importance of seven wine attributes, and Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to identify consumer segments. Findings Four consumer segments were identified: inexperienced, experts, price-sensitive and eco-friendly. These groups differ significantly in their evaluation of attributes such as price, wine type, designation of origin (DO) and label information. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to the Valencian Community and may not be generalizable to other regions. Future research could apply the same approach in broader national or cross-cultural contexts. Originality/value This is the first study to integrate BWS and LCA to examine wine preferences in the Valencian Community, offering a novel understanding of consumer heterogeneity based on psychographic and territorial dimensions.