Vignerons and the Vines Mediators of Place-based Identity in Alsace, France
March 1, 2022 - Arceno, Mark Anthony
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EmailJournal or Book Title: SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Abstract: Amid ongoing social and ecological transformations, vignerons (winegrowers) and the vines in their care are r esponding to the impacts of climatic and other forms of change. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the eastern French winegrowing region of Alsace, I turn to the sensorium as the site where changing landscapes are forcing people to rethink the meaning of terroir, a key term in which winegrowing is articulated as a practice. I go beyond typical renderings of this French concept, often defined in terms of interactions among its various components (e.g. soil, wind and human know-how), to bring attention to the sen-sory relationships that connect them. Through walking and semi-directed interviews, as well as participant observations, with informants who represent thirteen different winegrowing sites, I generated data that explicate what is changing, how changes are being addressed and what this means for understanding the very place(s) in which place-based wine producers and their products are embedded. By attending to the senses, I contend that the go??t du ter-roir or ???taste of place??? is not merely reflected through the wines being produced by Alsatian winegrowers but is also a story of sensory relationships contributed by the vines themselves.
Type of Publication: Article
