Abstract
The level of market penetration for wine has expanded substantially in the past 30 years. As export markets have opened and developed over this time, the influx of new wine consumers has been regarded as a positive outcome by the wine sector. However, the problem is that the wine sector knows little about how and why consumers decide to become wine drinkers, nor how the level of wine involvement changes over time. Demographers recognise that consumers adopt patterns of behaviour in response to exposure to influential events. These events are both recognised for their influence on subsequent behaviour, and their capacity to explain a wine consumer's behavioural patterns. This study used a retrospective method of data collection to model patterns of wine consumption over time. The method was implemented so as to enable a measure of the relationship between a series of theoretically influential events, and changes in behavioural patterns as wine involvement changes. The retro-regression results of a time‐series analysis illustrate that changes in patterns occur within the same year, if they are to occur at all. Further, the relationship between life‐cycle events and changes in wine consuming patterns is seldom significant. Further research should be conducted to identify the wine-specific events that are believed to be influential on wine consumption behaviour, specifically to realise knowledge on increases in their level of wine involvement.