The Role of Visual Impressions in Perceived Naturalness and Natural Wine Categorization

Natural wine is a highly contested category lacking universally accepted definitions and certification standards, yet consumers and wine professionals routinely judge whether a wine appears to be a natural wine. This study examined how visual impressions of wine labels relate to perceived naturalness and natural wine categorization in the absence of formal natural-wine certification cues. Seven wine labels were evaluated in two studies conducted in Japan. Study 1 involved novice consumers who rated label impressions and perceived naturalness, whereas Study 2 involved experienced wine consumers and wine professionals who additionally evaluated whether each wine appeared to be a natural wine. A participant-level exploratory factor analysis conducted in Study 1 identified two perceptual dimensions of wine-label impressions, termed Classicness and Delicateness. The resulting factor structure was subsequently applied to Study 2. Across both studies, perceived naturalness showed a consistent positive association with Delicateness. In contrast, natural wine categorization was associated with lower Classicness in wine-level analyses, although this relationship was not supported by participant-level mixed-effects analyses and therefore remained exploratory. Perceived naturalness and natural wine categorization showed a weak positive association, but the relationship did not reach statistical significance. These findings suggest that wine-label impressions contribute to perceived naturalness and provide preliminary evidence that they may also contribute to natural wine categorization. More broadly, the results indicate that perceptions of naturalness and natural wine categorization may be shaped not only by technical criteria and formal definitions but also by shared perceptual expectations and category representations.