Thesis:

Bordeaux Wine and postmodern consumers. Can the

tradition strict ancient practices of Bordeaux’s wine commerce
keep up with the post modern consumer era?

Background: In recent years there has been several alarming data and
developments that indicate that Bordeaux’s wine commerce is in the decline in wine
retail. Wines from other regions of France, especially Loire and the Southern
regions, besides others, happen to see an increase in sales whether in volume or
value. Observations in wine bars of Bordeaux also showed that wines which does
not necessarily adhere to any appellation, like artisanal wines which are fruits of
experiment, wines made with lost indigenous grape varietals, Vin de France etc are
increasingly gaining on popularity.

Other observations from society also hint the fact that the general wine consumers
are gradually detaching themselves from drinking Bordeaux, while associating the
industry with China and only caring about making money. Recently in professional
social networking sites such as Linkedin, several reports has been circulating which
indicates alarming decline of Bordeaux’s wine commerce, including the steady
decline of footfall at Vinexpo.

While all these remains speculations, except the data on sales value and volume, it is
of imperative importance that scientific research is conducted and scientific
literature be written in order to understand what exactly is happening to one of the
oldest wine producing regions in modern day winemaking. There are several
dynamics and variables at play here thus to narrow down to specific reasons will be
a challenging task. One variable to study are the post modern consumers of wine,
which can give us some concrete scientific insights.

Therefore through this paper, I have tried to understand the post modern
consumers. To identify and define them in the context of the new economy which is
experiential and which often combines production and consumption. The
purchasing behavior and motivation of these consumers of wine, has also been
studied and expressed in details. If we can understand these variables, we will
advance one step closer to finding solutions to Bordeaux’s declining wine
commerce.

Literature Review: I have downloaded around 90 scientific papers which present
directly information on post modern consumerism, wine consumerism, new
generations and their perceptions/motivations, bordeaux’s wine commerce analysis
etc. I will present precise information from these papers in this review.

Methodology: Through online questionnaire, I will attempt to survey wine
consumers in several countries where Bordeaux wine has been consumed
substantially in recent years, including France. The questioned will be formulated in
order to specifically understand motivation, purchasing behavior, perceptions and
opinions.
Results: I will present the finding of the survey here in table formats.

Discussion: In the discussion part, I will show how my findings match or contrast
with the scientific data, which exists already from the literature review. Additionally
I will discuss all the other variables needed to understand the main problem or
problems that threaten Bordeaux’s wine commerce. I will suggest how research may
be done to understand those variables and match them with the results of this
paper’s survey.

Conclusion: In the conclusion, I will summarize the entire paper with reinforcing
whether the findings of this paper is conclusive or need further research in order to
concretely present problems from the consumerism point of view.