Geography Of Wine Research Articles

New regions in a glass. Embedding landscape in the production of wine narratives

Over the last 30 years, the global wine sector has undergone substantial shifts both in production and consumption, with significant impacts on the geography of wine and vineyards. The study follows this evolution from a narrative production perspective, underlining the cultural value of wine and the emergence of new territorial imageries linked to terroir. Taking the case of Etna wines, the research aims to cast light on both the local practices of resistance to global competitiveness and the online narratives of consuming both wine and landscape targeted at a global audience. A mixed methodology with a place-based approach is adopted, aimed at exploring critical issues in the context of a relatively new wine-producing region. Findings reveal an active offline and online reterritorialisation, with conflicting identities being glossed over by landscape attributes, which are exploited to embed territory in a glass.

Why has wine consumption become popular in Hong Kong? Introducing a new sociocultural paradigm of traditional, aspiring and creative drinkers

Although Hong Kong has become one of the most valuable wine trading hubs in the world since the withdrawal of the wine duty in February 2008, relatively little is known about how and why local consumers drink wine. Drawing on Bourdieu’s notions of “connoisseur,” “pedant,” and “proletarian,” this article introduces a paradigm of three drinking practices in Hong Kong: established, aspiring and creative. It further introduces the concept of “third indigenization” – the combining of products from two or more places of origin, and subsequently creating a new product in a third place. Methodologically, the analysis of marketing materials, ethnographies, interviews and focus groups conducted in Hong Kong provides a basis for exploring the sociocultural and geographical meanings of wine. This article discusses how wine consumption is popular because it conveys the idea of being globalized, allows the display of wealth, and expresses the idea of having cultural capital. Significantly, this article challenges popular Anglo-Eurocentric understandings of consumption practices and provides a broader and more flexible approach to cultural analysis: it makes conceptual and methodological and contributions to consumer research and to the sociology and geography of wine.

The Geography of Wine: How Landscapes, Cultures, Terroir, and the Weather Make a Good Drop by Brian J. Sommers (review)

Reviewed by: The Geography of Wine: How Landscapes, Cultures, Terroir, and the Weather Make a Good Drop by Brian J. Sommers David M. Cochran Jr. The Geography of Wine: How Landscapes, Cultures, Terroir, and the Weather Make a Good Drop Brian J. Sommers. Plume, New York. 2008. 289 pp. Maps, photos, tables, appendix, index. $16.00 paperback. (ISBN 978-0-452-28890-4) Wine is well-suited to illustrate a wide range of geographical patterns and processes. The cultivation of wine grapes and manufacture of wine itself, not to mention port, brandy, and other alcoholic beverages made from grapes, give rise to complex interactions between humans and environments and exhibit a remarkable variability across cultures, economies, and political systems around the world and through time. In The Geography of Wine, Brian Sommers has written an interesting study of humanity’s long and varied relationship with Vitis vinifera. Wine enthusiasts will find this book of value, and by reading it, some may well come to a greater appreciation of the geographical perspective. Geographers, on the other hand, may find fault with the book’s periodic lapses into excessive detail and with missed opportunities to build upon recent theoretical advances in the field. To be fair, however, the author’s intent is not to dazzle academicians, but to speak to broader audiences both inside and outside the university. In that regard, Sommers generally succeeds. The Geography of Wine is organized topically, in much the same way as many standard geography textbooks. After a brief introduction, the first six chapters examine wine through the lens of the physical environment, focusing on macro- and micro-climates, soils, biogeography, and natural hazards as factors in wine production. This is followed by two chapters that discuss how geographical principles, coupled with GIS and remote sensing technologies, can be applied to contemporary winemaking, from the cultivation of grapes to the production, distribution, and marketing of wine. Both of these chapters, which read more like overviews, seem awkwardly placed in the middle of the book, and might have served better as part of a more expansive introduction. The final seven chapters cover a wide range of human geographical themes about wine. Several I found particularly enjoyable. One chapter focuses on the impacts of diffusion, empire, and colonialism on the historic spread and contemporary distribution of wine. Others examine the role of industrialization and urbanization in transforming wine into the global industry it is today. Another examines the historic influence of alcohol [End Page 86] prohibitions, focusing particularly on the United States temperance movement and prohibition in the early 20th century. Sommers argues convincingly that prohibition benefitted the California wine industry by destroying its competition in more established areas of wine and cider production throughout the eastern half of the United States. Sommers also examines tensions between local and regional wine identities, embodied in the increasingly mainstream term, terroir, and pressures that arise from production schedules of multinational corporations seeking to satisfy global demand. There is even a chapter on alcoholic beverages not made from grapes—notably beer, cider, and distilled spirits—which have their own distinctive geographies and are themselves emergent topics of interest in geographical research. Throughout the book, each chapter contains a case study of a particular wine region. This is a nice touch. In presenting these cases, Sommers introduces readers to virtually all of the famous wine regions of the world, and to many that are lesser known as well, providing detailed explanations why each is noteworthy. The Geography of Wine has a number of regrettable shortcomings. In his discussions about the impacts of environmental factors on grape cultivation and wine production, Sommers frequently gets bogged down in details and includes a great deal of information that has no clear relevance. For example, rather than focusing solely on climates where wine grapes can be cultivated with reasonable success, Sommers takes the reader on an exhaustive tour of all major Köppen climate classes. The fact that polar and tropical climates are unsuitable for wine production perhaps deserves a brief mention, but little more than that. In another chapter, Sommers includes a crash course in soil geography, complete with a description of Oxisols of the humid...

Changes in the Geography of Wine<BR> New Wine in New Bottles

Changes in the Geography of Wine<BR> New Wine in New Bottles

Vines, Wines, and Regional Identity in the Finger Lakes Region

Although the regional climate is unfavorable, microclimatic effects of the lakes and their valleys make viticulture possible. Production based on native American grape varieties that yield sweet wines is declining. Introduction of vines to produce dry wines has led to changes in operations and vineyard location that may create a new, positive image for the regional wines. W INE making has been described as the most geographically expressive of agricultural activities.1 This characterization highlights the ensemble of environmental and human factors that produces distinctive landscapes with viticultural activities. Part of the distinctiveness is similarity. Vineyards are highly visible wherever they are, and a trained eye can easily identify the associated structures and technological paraphernalia. Considerable regional diversity combines with similarity. The stately chateaux and small vineyards in the Loire valley look nothing like the new functionally designed buildings, set amid acre after acre of irrigated vines in the Hunter valley of Australia; nor would the German Rheingau be mistaken for Sonoma, California. The geography of wine does not end with a landscape. Color, smell, and taste of wine, including judgments about quality, most often stamp a region with its identity. The expressiveness of wine thus goes beyond what is usually observed and measured in geography. During the course of time, some regions have achieved such worldwide repute that a wine is virtually synonymous with them. For example, the Medoc portion of the Bordeaux region epitomizes how wine style and esteem can identify a place. Other examples where a wine and an area form an inseparable regional image are Champagne, Jerez, and the Moselle. At the other end of the scale are areas with limited identity, an example of which is the Finger Lakes region of New York State. Wine has been produced there for more than a century, and it has been designated an approved U.S. viticultural area (Fig. 1). However, the region does not have a strong reputation as a wine-producing area. If the Finger Lakes region conjures an image, it tends to be of the past glaciers and the distinctive lakes that they left behind. Nonetheless, wine production is important in the region, and recent changes require a reassessment of old perceptions. The shifts have a potential for both expanding and enhancing the identity of the region as a wine-producing area. H. J. De Blij, Wine: A Geographic Appreciation (Totowa. N.J.: Rowman and Allanheld, 1983), xii. * DR. NEWMAN is a professor of geography at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.51 on Sun, 19 Jun 2016 05:56:06 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW FIG. 1-The Finger Lakes viticultural area.