Wine and the Vine

WINE AND THE VINE The products of the grape vine are amongst the most diverse of any agricultural crop. This is not only the result of differences in geology and climate; it also reflects the labour of countless generations of vine growers and wine makers, each set in their own distinctive human context. It is this interaction of people and environments, creating specific cultural identities, that lies at the heart of any understanding of the emergence and spread of viticulture and wine production. Wine and the Vine provides an introduction to the historical geography of viticulture and the wine trade from prehistory to the present. Throughout, the rich symbolic and cultural significance of wine is related to its evolution as a commercial product. The book discusses both the numerous symbolic roles assigned to wine and the vine by people of different religions and also the internationalisation of wine production and marketing. Particular themes which form a focus for analysis include the role of the Roman Empire in influencing the spread of viticulture; the importance of political factors in determining the contours of the medieval wine trade; the use of wines and vines as social symbols throughout history; the global spread of viticulture under colonialism and imperialism; and the role of transnational corporations in the modern wine industry. Unlike previous books, Wine and the Vine sets the development of viticulture and the wine trade within a particular theoretical framework, considering them as one expression of changing interactions between social, economic, political and ideological structures. Tim Unwin is a Reader in Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. WINE AND THE VINE An Historical Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade Tim Unwin LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 1991 Paperback edition first published in 1996 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge's collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 1991, 1996 Tim Unwin Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984byInternational Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder and Stoughton Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-01326-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN - Adobe e-Reader Format ISBN 0-415-14416-7 (Print Edition) For those who have shared their wisdom and their wine with me CONTENTS Place-names: a note viii List of figures ix List of tables xi Preface to the paperback edition xii Preface xxi Acknowledgements xxiii 1 THEMES IN THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF VITICULTURE 1 2 VITICULTURE AND VINDICATION 22 3 THE ORIGINS OF VITICULTURE: SYMBOLS AND MYSTERIES 47 4 WINE IN THE GRAECO-ROMAN ECONOMY 78 5 VITICULTURE AND WINE IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 113 6 MEDIEVAL VITICULTURE AND THE WINE TRADE 143 7 WINE IN THE AGE OF DISCOVERY 178 8 CAPITAL IN THE SPHERE OF PRODUCTION 203 9 CRISES AND EXPANSION: THE RESTRUCTURING OF VITICULTURE 236 IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 10 THE DOMINANCE OF CAPITAL IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: 273 DEMARCATION, SECTORAL INTEGRATION AND THE CREATION OF FASHION 11 CONCLUSION 316 Appendix: historic wine measures 322 Bibliography 325 Index 353 PLACE-NAMES: A NOTE The spelling of place-names presents very serious problems, since not only are places spelled differently in different languages, but the spelling of such names has also changed through time. In general, the names currently in use in the country where a place is located have been preferred, except where there is a very widely used English language alternative, and then only for a capital city. Thus Rome, rather than Roma has been preferred, but Marseille and Lyon have been left in their French spelling. Belgian names, with either French or Flemish alternatives, have been rendered in English, as with Ghent and Bruges. Coastlines and national boundaries, where shown are those existing at date of publication. LIST OF FIGURES 1 Cartoon by Blachon 2 2 Cartoon by Barbe 10 3 Pommard and Beaune from the Côte de Beaune 14 4 Pinhão at the junction of the rivers Douro and Pinhão 17 5 Robert Mondavi winery, Oakville, Napa Valley 19 6 The global distribution of viticulture 29 7 The composition of a grape 30 8 The life cycle of Phylloxera vitifoliae 34 9 The traditional method of treading grapes: the vintage at Quinta da Foz, Pinhão, 42 northern Portugal 10 The construction of a modern winery, with stainless steel fermentation tanks, 42 Cave des Hautes Côtes, Beaune 11 The origins and spread of viticulture in south-west Asia and the eastern 53 Mediterranean 12 Relief from royal palace at Nineveh illustrating Ashurbanipal and his queen 54 drinking under a bower of vines 13 Vintage scene depicted on the walls of the tomb of Khaemwese (Thebes No. 261) 57 c. 1450 BC 14 Vintage scenes from Dynastic Egypt 58 15 Banquet scene from the tomb of Nebamun (Thebes) c. 1450 BC 60 16 Carved image of a Hittite god at Ivriz 62 17 Statue of Bacchus with a personification of the vine (AD 150–200) 72 18 Roman statue of Priapus (first-second century AD) 76 19 Red Figure Kylix (480 BC) depicting wine drinking 83 20 The spread of viticulture in Gaul 96 21 Roman wine amphorae 103 22 The distribution of Dressel 1 amphorae in Europe and the western Mediterranean 104 23 A Roman bar at Ercolano (Herculaneum) (AD 79) 106 24 Marble relief illustrating the transport of wine by ox caft 110 25 Vintage scene from the roof of the Church of Santa Costanza, Rome 122 26 Vine cultivation in an illustration from the Khamseh of Nizami (1595) 133 27 The distribution of vineyards along the rivers Rhine and Mosel before 1050 142 28 Illumination for the month of September, showing the vintage at the Château de 147 Saumur 29 Woodcut of Virgil and Maecenas, showing different types of vine training 148 30 Treading the vintage from the early fourteenth century manuscript of Queen 149 Mary’s Psalter 31 Vintage scene from a Flemish Book of Hours of the Blessed Virgin (c. 1500) 151 32 Main European wine trade routes c. 1250 158 33 The global spread of viticulture, 1500–1800 190 34 Early sixteenth-century miniature from a Bréviaire illustrating the arrival of wine 198 at Bruges 35 The village of Hautvillers 227 36 Port lodges at Vila Nova de Gaia 233 37 The spread of phylloxera in France 254 38 The vintage in California: wood engraving after a drawing by Paul Frenzeny 269 39 Advertisement for the wines of Côtes du Roussillon and Côtes du Roussillon 311 Villages LIST OF TABLES 1 Subgenera and main species of the genus Vitis 25 2 Main vine varieties used for wine production, classified by species 27 3 Main vine pests and diseases 31 4 Wine exports from Gascon ports during the fourteenth century 172 5 Wine exports from Bordeaux during the fifteenth century 174 6 The 1855 classification of the wines of the Gironde 246 7 Alcohol consumption in the United Kingdom, 1930–88 296 8 Changes in the consumption of wine, spirits and beer, 1976–86 303 PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION In the five years that have passed since the first publication of Wine and the Vine, the global wine industry has seen considerable change. Levels of wine consumption have continued to fall in the old producing countries of Europe, while the importance of New World producers such as Chile, Australia and South Africa has continued to rise in the market place. Technological changes in vine cultivation and wine making have also played a significant role in transforming the wines that we drink, with international wine makers now travelling the globe and using their technological expertise to produce new wines, often specially designed to suit the tastes of specific north European markets. These changes have been matched by the publication of an increasing amount of research on the history of wine, and of major new texts on viticulture and oenology. In the historical sphere, there have been detailed regional case studies such as that of Piemonte edited by Rinaldo Comba (1992, 1994), new accounts of specific countries and periods including Loubère’s (1990) The Wine Revolution in France, and more obscure yet beautifully illustrated works such as the collection of papers by the geographers Alain Huetz de Lemps, Jean-Robert Pitte, Xavier de Planhol and Philippe Roudié (1990) entitled Les Vins de l’Impossible. Likewise, Pierre Spahni (1995) has written an invaluable survey of the contemporary international wine trade, providing not only a broad overview of recent changes, but also detailed analysis of specific import markets and exporter profiles. On the viticultural and oenological side, major new texts include Boulton, Singleton, Bisson and Kunkee’s (1996) comprehensive Principles and Practices of Winemaking; Ron Jackson’s (1994) ambitious Wine Science, Ough’s (1992) Winemaking Basics, John Gladstones’ (1992) somewhat controversial Viticulture and Environment, and the second volume of Coombe and Dry’s (1992) excellent Viticulture.

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