Abstract

Drawing on more than twenty years of fieldwork, this book explores the professional, social, and cultural world of Burgundy wines, the role of terroir, and its transnational deployment in China, Japan, South Korea, and New Zealand. It demystifies the terroir ideology by providing a unique long-term ethnographic analysis of what lies behind the concept. While the Burgundian model of terroir has gone global by acquiring UNESCO world heritage status, its very legitimacy is now being challenged amongst the vineyards where it first took root.

Marion Demossier is Professor of French and European Studies and Head of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Southampton, and holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the EHESS (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales) in Paris. She has been involved as an expert with the wine industry in France and New Zealand and is a member of the UNESCO network Chair Culture of Wine, Dijon since 2006.

“[This study] is clearly structured and written in the strongly personal voice of a scholar deeply immersed in her subject, which she has been researching for more than two decades. The book has the potential to become an important point of reference for future research on a range of issues beyond wine-making.” · Ullrich Kockel, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

“A rare gem: well-conceived, beautifully written, carefully illustrated, loaded with original insights—this book has the potential to capture a wide audience of educated readers and wine lovers (not to mention intrigued academics)… What takes this book far beyond what is currently on the market is the author’s genuinely transnational approach.” · Kolleen M. Guy, University of Texas, San Antonio

“The most revealing study to date of the social construction of the concept of terroir… A landmark work on the politics of identity in the present age of food and drinks globalization.” · Julie McIntyre, University of Newcastle, Australia