the very special market segment of the latter, this is certainly a less relevant profile, at least for the purposes of this essay. 5. Reflections on market segmentation: wine increasingly an elite product? The discussion conducted so far makes clear the non-linearity of the effect of the entry into force of the new regulation. On the one hand, in fact, the declared aim of this is to provide consumers with an effective information tool, to enable them to broaden their choice and to bridge the information gap with producers; on the other hand, the effect of the information - as envisaged by the Regulation - could be to create confusion, especially with regard to the impact of wine consumption on health. I struggle to see any added value in this information. As we have seen, it is essentially irrelevant for the expert consumer, who is certainly more interested in cultivation methods and oenological practices than in sodium content; for the non-expert consumer, it may be difficult to understand and at the same time feed the idea that wine, even that in which there is less human intervention, is a product that tends to be hypercaloric and harmful to health. It is obviously too early to assess what the impact of the new rules will be once they come into force. Perhaps it could be less than expected, as consumers will tend to ignore the new information (which, for the reasons I outlined above, is likely for the list of ingredients, less so for the energy content). There is, however, the possibility that, as a consequence of the new legislation, there may be at least a partial alteration of the segments into which the wine market is traditionally divided. Since the planned additional information, at least in my opinion, is actually of poor quality and informative value, especially as it inappropriately assimilates wine to the generality of foodstuffs, the lower end of the market (discount stores, large-scale distribution) could see reduced consumption, as buyers would be disincentivized by finding that wine, for example, contains more calories than most carbonated soft drinks.
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