Purpose

The climate in Mendoza is significantly different from the climate in most global wine-making regions. This paper aims to explore the relationship between the quality of the Malbec wine from the Mendoza region and its weather.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses a multivariate regression model with fixed effects to assess how weather variations relate to wine quality. The Wine Spectator ratings are used as a measure of wine quality and to build a longitudinal data set of Malbec wine ratings from 1995 to 2020. The weather is described with several variables based on temperature, rainfall, humidity and cloudiness data from the Mendoza region. The model controls for wineries which are treated as fixed effects.

Findings

The results of this study indicate that the weather has a modest explanatory power when it comes to the quality of Mendoza’s Malbec. Additionally, the analyses show that the wineries are more important than the weather to explain quality differences in the wines. These findings are in agreement with previous studies carried out in regions with stable weather such as California and Australia.

Practical implications

The quality of Mendoza’s Malbec depends more on the winery of origin than the year-to-year weather variations. Therefore, consumers should focus more on the winery and less on the vintage when making purchasing decisions. Additionally, given the relevance of the winery in relation to quality, the findings of this study indicate that future research efforts should focus on directly linking the wine ratings to quality-drivers behind the winery effects.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that explores the relationship between wine quality assessed through wine ratings and the weather in the Mendoza (Argentina) region. Most such studies have been done in connection with northern hemisphere wines.

中文翻译：

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阿根廷马尔贝克的品质和门多萨地区的天气

目的

门多萨的气候与全球大多数葡萄酒产区的气候显着不同。本文旨在探讨门多萨地区马尔贝克葡萄酒的品质与其天气之间的关系。

设计/方法论/途径

本研究使用具有固定效应的多元回归模型来评估天气变化与葡萄酒质量的关系。《葡萄酒观察家》评级用于衡量葡萄酒质量，并构建 1995 年至 2020 年马尔贝克葡萄酒评级的纵向数据集。根据门多萨地区的温度、降雨量、湿度和云量数据，用多个变量来描述天气。该模型控制了被视为固定效应的酿酒厂。

发现

这项研究的结果表明，对于门多萨马尔贝克的品质，天气的解释力不大。此外，分析表明，在解释葡萄酒质量差异方面，酒庄比天气更重要。这些发现与之前在加利福尼亚和澳大利亚等天气稳定地区进行的研究一致。

实际影响

门多萨马尔贝克的质量更多地取决于原产地酿酒厂，而不是每年的天气变化。因此，消费者在做出购买决定时应多关注酒庄，少关注年份。此外，考虑到酒庄与质量的相关性，这项研究的结果表明，未来的研究工作应该集中于将葡萄酒评级与酒庄效应背后的质量驱动因素直接联系起来。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，这是第一项探讨通过葡萄酒评级评估的葡萄酒质量与门多萨（阿根廷）地区天气之间关系的研究。大多数此类研究都是针对北半球葡萄酒进行的。