Vintages and Tradition: An Ethnohistory of Southwest French Wine Cooperatives

Abstract

Vintages and Tradtion. An Ethnohistory of Southwest French Ware Cooperatives. ROBERT C. ULi. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1996. This is a study of social and conditions that led to marginal status of southwest French wine cooperatives with respect to prestigious estate-bottled wines of Bordeaux. Described by author alternately as ethnohistory and historical ethnography, Ulin's work is based on eleven years of archival and field research in Medoc and Dordogne regions. Describing his central theoretical and problematic, Ulin writes: The establishment of a winegrowing hierarchy in southwest of France arises from of processes that are inextricably political-economic, symbolic, and in nature. Consequently, any narrative that seeks to con.act and represent ethnographically and historically past and present of wine cooperatives must bridge very theoretical gulf that currently divides political economy from theory in anthropology and history (p. 26). The early chapters outline formative periods in southwest French winegrowing history, including twelfth-century English occupation, development of grand cru (first growth) vineyards, and crises which led small winegrowers to create regional cooperatives. Despite producing nearly half of France's wine, and often in close proximity to prestigious estates, cooperatives do not benefit from cultural capital of First Growth wines. Against assumption that elite wine makers benefit from an especially favorable climate and soil Ulin argues that this is an invented tradition which sustains their prestige and distinguishes their wine and lives from others. The chateau label has been particularly important in calling forth associations with aristocracy of past, even though, Ulin notes, houses of traditional aristocracy in region were not chateaus. Because this label requires that wine be estate-bottled and associated with a particular place (with grapes from a single vineyard), collectively vinified wines of cooperatives are at a disadvantage and assigned marginal status. In outlining convergence of processes that are inextricably political-economic, symbolic, and in nature, Ulin has focussed primarily on state policies and extra-local markets for wine with respect to first of these processes, on invented tradition of First Growth wines with respect to second, and on a hierarchy of social class relationships in French society with respect to third. Vintages and traditions succeeds best with first aim, that is, in describing local articulation of state policies and international market changes. In Chapters 3 and 4 Ulin draws out particularities of Bordeaux's winegrowing history with respect to development of capitalism and an international market for wine. Drawing on work of Eric Wolf and Sidney Mintz, Ulin argues against the general impression, often supported by a world-systems approach, that capitalism is a homogenous, totalizing system producing similar effects in all places and all times (p. 65). Chapters 6 and 7 provide a thorough overview of internal structure of southwest cooperatives, legislation governing their wine, and limits and possibilities available through marketing organizations. Ulin's analysis reveals continuities and innovations with respect to a long history of wine production, both at levels of individual winegrowers and of state legislation and broader economic conditions that shape their labor. …

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