Using constant 1988 dollars, the study demonstrates that the price on the entire basket of the top 100 wines in the United States decreased from US$4,313 in 1988 to US$3,132 in 1993 in 5 years. It further fell to US$2,533 in 1999 and US$2,421 in 2004. The decrease in prices over these 16 years was 44% while the quality of wines included in the top 100 list stayed roughly the same over the study period.
The study concludes that globalization is the driving force behind the drop in prices. Wine from "Old World" countries like France and Italy is being replaced by "New World" competitors like Australia or even so-called "New-New World" competitors like Chile. "Thanks to globalization, the world of wine is filled with greater variety, the same level of quality and, at least for wine drinkers in the United States, also a more affordable one."
'The Wine Spectator's Top 100 list published every year since 1988 was used as a reference. If average American wine drinkers were to go out and buy the top 100 wines, would they pay less money, have better quality and more variety in national origin in 2005 than in 1988? Each year the Wine Spectator uses the same four factors to determine the list-taste, availability, price, and the x-factor, which takes into account how significant the wine's achievement for that year has been,' says Omer Gokcecus, Seton Hall University in the US, who conducted the study with the help of a Graduate Student.
The number of countries appearing on the Top 100 lists over the 18 years represented in this study increases, from six countries in 1988 to a total of eleven countries in 2005.
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