Information, quality and legal rules: Wine adulteration in nineteenth century France

Abstract

Nowadays global concerns are tightly linked to the way wine production and labelling have been regulated in France. This paper aims to provide an historical explanation of this peculiar regulation of the wine market in France. Our argument will be that wine adulteration, as it is conceived and regulated nowadays, has to be distinguished from ancient and pre-modern forms of adulteration. From the last quarter of the nineteenth century, technical progresses (i.e. organic chemistry in food and wine making), extended commercial networks and an extending intermediation led to market failures. However, state regulation mainly aimed to ensure the circulation of information and fair trade rather than to protect public health. As a result, from the end of the nineteenth century up to the present, in France and in Europe, rules on beverages are more concerned with preserving AOC (collective trademarks) and wine producers' profits than with limiting alcohol consumption.