Tasting and Judging the Unknown Terroir of the Bulgarian Wine: The Political Economy of Sensory Experience

Abstract

Some Bulgarian winemakers insist that their unique terroir (taste of place) and native grapes can deliver a “distinctive” product in the global market. Such beliefs are the driving force for marginal producers to continue with their wine production in a fiercely competitive global wine market despite the lack of brand equity and cultural capital compared to the world's elite wines. How can the global consumer sense this unique “taste of place” which is itself an elusive culturally cultivated concept? What does gastronomic connoisseurship entail in a highly globalized world where knowledge of local products and taste are exchanged and experienced in a standardized way as a global foodway? Understanding these questions from the viewpoints of the Bulgarian wine sector, this article discusses the intersection of the sensory experience and the implicit global hierarchy of value that wine producers and consumers employ to objectify and communicate the subjective taste knowledge and identity of place.