Differentiating, valuing, appreciating as collective object
Abstract
Wine producers have recently focussed again the attention on quality. According to them, the search for quality should be the first if not the only aim of the quality wine producers. Instead, many of them are compromising: “quality” is endangered by the inclination of some producers to adjust quality to demand or to definite critics’ tastes. But not only are short term economics a damageable temptation for winemakers. Their excessive use of technology has also transformed the art of making good wine into a search for virtuosity, which shades off the contribution of the grapes to the quality of wine. The “terroir” has to become again the cause of quality. These producers claim thus for a return back to a greater wine quality authenticity, which is achieved by limiting the “intervention” of the winemaker and emphasizing the place of the idiosyncratic grapes characteristics in the wine quality. But in doing so, they alter the wine tastes. Wine quality requires to be reconfigured. The new quality has to be differentiated, valued, appreciated in order to create a new commercial space. Our contribution will show how these winemakers and their supporters make the “terroir” count in wine perception and market by exploring the production and marketing processes.
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)