Restaurant professionals as curators of wine spaces: norms and practices guiding wine quality and sustainability

Abstract

Little is known about restaurant professionals' views on wine sustainability and how these beliefs are embedded in cultural norms of wine quality.Using wine spaces as an entry point, this ethnographic study sought to explore the norms and practices that guide restaurant professionals in their assessment of wine quality and sustainability.The article depicts wine spaces as emblems mediating a particular wine culture with its own norms which guide such assessment.These spaces provide professionals with a setting to accumulate culinary capital as curators, and so wine spaces can be understood as the realm of experts.The results show that incorporating sustainability in wine assessment is challenging for restaurant professionals.First, there are inherent conflicts between environmental and sociocultural sustainability.Second, some norms and practices ingrained in heritage and tradition act as barriers to the adoption of, for example, more sustainable packaging.Third, the perceived sensory attributes of more sustainable wines are sometimes considered detrimental to wine quality.However, we argue that in their role as curators and intermediaries, restaurant professionals can use their expert status to challenge norms and give sustainability the same importance as other parameters such as acidity, tannins, and overall balance.

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