Influence of Live Music and Tasting Assessment on Hedonic and Emotional Responses of Wine in Public Tasting Events

TL;DR

This study explores how live music affects people's enjoyment and emotional responses to wine during public tastings.

Contribution

The study demonstrates that music modulates wine appreciation through emotional and expectancy mechanisms in real-world settings.

Findings

Music significantly enhanced overall wine appreciation compared to a silent condition.

Upbeat music produced stronger and more consistent increases in liking than relaxing music.

Positive surprise emerged as a key mediator of improved wine enjoyment.

Abstract

Wine represents one of the most complex food matrices from a sensory perspective, as its appreciation emerges from the interaction between chemical composition, perceptual mechanisms, and contextual influences. Contemporary research in oenology and sensory science increasingly recognizes wine evaluation as an integrated perceptual event shaped by cognition, memory, and affect, rather than a simple response to aroma or flavor cues. Live music is widely used in hospitality settings to enhance consumer experience; however, its specific influence on wine appreciation and emotional responses remains insufficiently explored, particularly in real-world contexts. This study investigates how two contrasting musical atmospheres—melancholic/relaxing and upbeat/motivational—modulate hedonic evaluations and emotional profiles during public wine tastings, compared with a no-music condition. Data were collected across five live tasting events (5 Wednesdays of Emotions) using structured questionnaires that included hedonic ratings and multidimensional emotional measures. Statistical analyses were conducted using non-parametric tests, meta-analytic p-value combination, and cumulative link mixed models for ordinal data. The presence of music significantly enhanced overall wine appreciation compared to the silent condition, although the magnitude and direction of the effect varied across individuals and musical styles. Upbeat/motivational music generally produced stronger and more consistent increases in liking than melancholic/relaxing music. Emotional responses—particularly positive surprise—emerged as key mediators of hedonic improvement and showed strong associations with overall liking. Preference profiling revealed distinct response patterns, indicating that auditory modulation of wine perception is not uniform across consumers. These findings support a crossmodal interpretation in which music shapes wine appreciation primarily through emotion-based and expectancy-related mechanisms rather than through direct sensory enhancement. By demonstrating these effects in ecologically valid tasting environments, the study highlights the role of auditory context as a meaningful component of multisensory wine experiences.

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