From tradition to moderation: Italian consumers’ attitudes and price acceptance for dealcoholized wines

This study examines Italian consumers' perceptions of dealcoholized wine and their conditional price acceptance under a hypothetical satisfactory-taste scenario. Using an online survey of 636 adults living in Italy, we combine descriptive statistics with an ordered logit model to investigate awareness, trial, perceived benefits and barriers, situational appropriateness, and relative price acceptance. Awareness is higher than familiarity, and 91.4% of respondents report never having tasted such a product. Within this comparatively educated and wine-involved sample, consumers associate dealcoholized wine with health, driving safety, and work-related compatibility, but also expect lower taste quality and weaker authenticity. In the ordered logit model, health orientation and perceived suitability for food pairing are positively associated with conditional price acceptance, whereas expecting a more diluted taste and viewing the product as "not real wine" are negatively associated. The evidence suggests that, after the recent Italian regulatory opening, the development of dealcoholized wine in Italy is likely to depend not only on improving sensory performance but also on establishing its symbolic legitimacy as a genuine form of wine and positioning it in contexts where its health and functional advantages are most valued.