Drinking Culture, Social Change and Regional Economy
This special issue attempts to establish an analytic framework for the study of drinking culture by connecting it with the key concept of singularity and food activism in a broader sense. This is also a response to the current issues that the alcohol industry faces in Taiwan. Taiwan opened the market for alcohol beverage imports in 1987, joined the WTO in 2002, and terminated the alcohol monopoly system that had been in force since 1922. Since then, alcohol production and consumption have entered a new era; drinking culture becomes more popular and trendy. It is easier to obtain information on how to purchase, preserve, and taste alcohol drinks.
Imported wine and alcohol beverages are widely displayed and promoted in hypermarkets as well as in small chain stores. There are all kinds of professional and amateur media, guides, apps, and critics about alcohol beverages; online bloggers teach people how to match food and drink;
everyone tries to tell the story about the “uniqueness” of certain alcohol beverages for collecting purposes. In all these seemingly vigorous developments, there are questions worth our consideration: Where does the precious value and uniqueness of certain alcoholic beverages come from?
How is the prestige of specific alcohol beverage constructed and shaped?
How can producers of alcohol products distinguish themselves from others?
I. Terroir and the Economics of Singularities
The aim of this special issue is to answer these questions, focusing on the perspectives of drinking culture, social change and regional economy. We examine four case studies to explore how regional alcohol beverage producers establish values for their products and transform their industries with the economics of singularities. Their purpose is not only to improve regional economic development, but also to gain cultural influence beyond the region and external recognition through the production and promotion of alcohol. This special issue is centered on two key concepts: “terroir”
and the “economics of singularities,” which are interrelated in the process of reconstructing the value and reputation of the local alcohol industry.
The concept of “terroir” comes originally from France, referring to a set of cultural value system, trying to connect land and climate, people and objects, producers and consumers.1 “Terroir” is not only applied to the uniqueness of agricultural products, but also often connected with the notion of food safety in the context of “agricultural product traceability”
(“tracing your food back to its source”).This notion of “terroir” also helps consumers establish a relationship of trust with land and producers, and thus constructs values for agricultural products. Taking the wine industry as an example, the concept of “terroir” is habitually employed to prove the
“uniqueness” of regions of production as well as particular wineries and estates.
1 Thomas Parker, Tasting French Terroir: The History of an Idea.
There are further dimensions to the discussion about “terroir”.
Anthropologist Marion Demossier takes the example of Controlled Designation of Origin (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, AOC) of small farmers in the high hills of Burgundy, and argues that the core logic of terroir is “the right to be different” (le droit d’être different).2 The AOC system is a set of agricultural production certificates with strong legal effects, intended to distinguish and protect the grape varieties, viticulture techniques, limits of production per unit area, and winemaking technology, etc.3 Demossier explains that “terroir” is an idea from French culture, used not only by wine growers but also by wine merchants and related practitioners from the AOC area, using information and knowledge based on humanities, meteorology, geology, geography, physiology, etc., to distinguish the specialty and differences between their own products and others. Even in the same AOC area, winegrowers will try to amplify the differences with their neighbors in order to highlight their uniqueness in a fiercely competitive market. Farmers often distinguish the uniqueness by
2 Marion Demossier, “Territoires, produits et identités en mutation: Les Hautes-Côtes en Bourgogne viticole,” p. 141-2.
3 Since 1905, based on the protectionism of production, variety control and anti-counterfeiting, France has developed four systems and levels of credentials step by step: Appellation d’origine controlée (AOC, Controlled Designation of Origin) in 1935, Vin Délimité de Qualité Supérieure (VDQS, Delimited Wine of Superior Quality) in 1949, Vin de pays (VDP, Country Wine) in 1968, and Vin de table (TW, Table Wine) in 1970. Since 2009, in order to cooperate with the European Union to unify the certification of agricultural products among various member countries, they are restructured as: Appellation d’origine protégée (AOP, Protected Designaiton of Origin)、Indication Géographique Protégée (IGP, Protected Geographical Indication), and Vin de France (VDF, French Wine). See “Official Signs Identifying Quality and Origin,” accessed 2020/11/12.
their landscape narratives, such as emphasizing “beautiful vines, beautiful wines” (belles vignes, bons vins). France plays an important role in the process of internationalization of the idea of “terroir”, especially the International Organization of Vine and Wine headquartered in Paris, one of the largest organizations related to alcohol beverages in the world.
Today, the concept of “terroir” has long surpassed wine industry and extends to all other areas related to food and agriculture.4
“Terroir” is related to the “economics of singularities”, a term which was created by sociologist Lucien Karpik. In his book L’économie des singularité, he examines several cases such as the Michelin Guide, famous wines, and powerful lawyers, etc., discussing how they gradually establish individual, institutional, or regional prestige, adding market value to their products or services, elevating the social status of people or items, extending interpersonal network for greater benefits. He also analyzes how famous brands transmit the discourse of “singularities”. In order to promote the unique value of certain items, one mechanism with two sides is essential. The first is the “message mechanism”, which interprets the content, physical appearance, and value of the product, adding as well a touching story through systems such as labels, areas of production, or signs. The other is the “trustworthy evaluation and reference mechanism,”
such as guides, critics, and reviews, which connect the corporation, its products, and consumers.5
4 Marion Demossier, Burgundy: A Global Anthropology of Place and Taste.
5 Lucien Karpik, L’économie des singularité.
The “economics of singularities” also involves the reverse logic and value of “big” and “small”. Contemporary mainstream neo-liberalism emphasizes and praises large-scale production. Yet, this large-scale industrialized mode of production is generally one of the main reasons responsible for industrial risks and crises. In response to the downsides caused by industrialized production, many producers and researchers have proposed alternatives, to replace large-scale industrial production with a
“small-scale model”, trying to reverse the dominance-subordination relationship between “big” and “small”. Historian Stéphane Le Bras examines several small-scale wineries and estates as examples, to show how marginalized wineries or wine-making technologies transform the order of market, organizations for distribution, and the perception of consumers.6 The small-scale model of production can be used to oppose or complement the shortcomings of the mass production model, and redefine the value of scale. The small-scale model also helps to renew social relationships and identity. Small communities highlight the uniqueness of their social status and historical background to build up their own reputation and resist certain ideologies or value systems that have been internalized or imposed by the mainstream, so that their products or social culture can be recognized and appreciated by others, and thereby reverse their status from the edge to the center.
6 Stéphane Le Bras, “Le ‘petit’: passé et futur d’un concept bien présent,” pp. 5-12.
II. Drinking Activism around the World
This issue contains four articles, covering studies on drinking culture in different regions including southwest China, central and southern France, northwest Spain, and South America. Among them, three papers are related to wine, focusing on its changes and diversity. Wine is a very vivid witness in the modern development of drinking culture. The documentary Sour Grapes mentions some wine-enlightened amateurs enthusiastic about the collection of Burgundy wines from rare vintages and special wineries.
This film insinuates the phenomenon that those wines have become a symbol of upper class society. This wine fetishism triggers the disturbances of fake wines racing for social prestige.7 The documentary also highlights wine as the symbol of social status and its market value in the alcohol industry. Some well-known areas of wine production monopolize and dominate the discourse and image of this sector. Contrary to the dominant discourse, this special issue examines cases of non-mainstream drinking culture and the construction of their singularities.
These all attempt to redefine and reinterpret the core concepts of “terroir”
and the “economics of singularities”, in other words, their “right to be different.” The common theme of these four cases is centered on industrial transformation, economic needs, and the experiences of drinkers in time of social change, and examines how people adopted various mechanisms to
7 Sour Grapes, directors: Jerry Rothwell and Reuben Atlas.
reform the disadvantaged images and situations that were rarely valued.
In “A True Revolution? Quality Wines in the Languedoc on the long Run (19th-21stcenturies),” Stéphane Le Bras describes the self-improvement and value reconstruction of the Languedocian wine industry in southeastern France. As the biggest area of wine production in the world, the Languedoc is important yet has been ignored for centuries. The film
“Mondovino”, selected in Un Certain Regard in the Cannes Film Festival 2004, begins with a sparsely populated manor in the Languedoc, illustrating how the local owner struggled to resist their acquisition by the rich family Mondavi.8 This film shows how vineyards, wine, and winemakers have become a capitalist medium and a significant example for understanding transnationalism in the alcohol beverage industry.
From Le Bras’ analysis, we learn that the Languedocian wine industry was originally an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) for other famous production areas such as Bordeaux or Burgundy, and also provided a substitute for those areas when they are out of wine. Languedocian local wines were often regarded as secondary processed products, cheap or even inferior. Sometimes they were used mixed in with other well-known wines as supplement. In order to reverse this negative image and low value, some practitioners worked together to transform and upgrade their local industries. Through analyzing a large amount of media reports, precious private documents, and institutional archives, Le Bras examines various roles played by actors in this industrial network, including grape growers,
8 Mondovino, director: Jonathan Nossiter.
winemakers, and wine merchants. All these actors were scattered in different places and used to be satisfied serving as subcontractors. Yet after suffering through the lengthy grape disease phylloxera from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth century, they started cooperatives based on the spirit of social division of labor. They established industrial chains based on a contract and trust system, and worked together to reverse the disadvantage and stigma. This was an ongoing collective project, and becomes a reference for others who have faced similar issues.
Christelle Pineau’s study “‘Nature’ Winegrowers: New Deal in the Wine World” talks about another type of transformation movement “nature wine”, which is now getting better known and more popular. The production process of nature wine is different from conventional farming;
it emphasizes the innovation of wine production with natural farming methods to meet consumers’ expectations and their imagination of what might be called “natural”. We may consider that what Pineau discusses in her paper is part of the current trend towards “food activism”, which regards the production and consumption of food as a significant social movement. Food activists try to connect local practices, nationwide actions, and transnational networks in order to change the over-exploitation of human labor and environmental resources in the food industry system, as well as to protect agricultural diversity.9 Pineau provides an example of how to understand advocates of food activism and their motivation, that is,
9 Carole Counihan and Valerie Siniscalchi, Food Activism: Agency, Democracy and Economy.
how the wine industry should adjust itself for a sustainable environment when facing the risks caused by drastic climate change and large-scale industry. They adopt new kinds of organizations, communications, and market relations, etc., to break down the old political actions and existing power relations. These nature winegrowers choose the position of winemaking in the industrial chain as a means to open up new avenues to social and economic justice. It must be emphasized that the definition of
“natural” in this paper implies “less”, not “zero” intervention and additives.
From Pineau’s paper, I would like to extend our discussion: is
“natural farming” the only way that the agricultural industry should adopt for sustainable development? Can we simplify production of alcohol beverages by drawing a dichotomy between “unnatural” and/or “natural”?
In the process of producing nature wines, what kind of farming techniques can be accepted and considered as more “natural”? Does it mean to remove sulfur dioxide, sugar or micro-oxidation, and other manual interventions?
The addition of sulfur dioxide is intended to stabilize the fermentation and preservation of the wine, and the addition of sugar is meant to increase the alcohol concentration. These two winemaking techniques have been used for a long time and are permitted by the strict laws and regulations of France and the European Union because these techniques are considered safe and acceptable. Nature wine tries to change the standard of this traditional winemaking technology which is used to ensure stable quality and flavor. Will the practice of nature wine cause legal conflicts and risks in quality control?
I would like to propose further reconsideration of the meaning regarding “natural”. Social psychologist Paul Rozin argues that when thinking about the meaning of “natural,” the process is more important than content.10 I would follow his idea and argue that when we use
“alternative farming” to replace “conventional farming”, what matters is not that the resulting agricultural products should be better, but whether the production process can take care of the aspects that have been neglected in the past. If we consider that nature wine is part of “food activism,” which attempts to change the over-exploitation of both human labor and environmental resources in the food industry system and to protect agricultural diversity, we may find unequal attention among those nature winegrowers: they seem to pay more attention to achieving an ecological balance but pay relatively little attention to the condition of human labor.
Frédéric Duhart, Fernando Mujica and Pablo Lacoste give us another atypical example in their article “Chacolíes: Light Wines and Strong Identities in North-West Spain and South America.” In this article, the authors discuss the variability of the winemaking process based on culture and identity by using “Chacolíes” wine as an example which is different from traditional ones. Chacolíes is a light wine that originated in northwestern Spain in the early 16th century. It has a long production history and spread to Chile, Argentina, and other regions through Spanish migrations. The uniqueness of this wine is manifested in the flexibility of
10 Paul Rozin, “The Meaning of Natural: Process More Important Than Content,” pp. 652-8.
its alcohol concentration and body color, combined with the strong cultural identity of the Basque Country. In these regions that across different national borders, Chacolíes, a wine characterized by its weak body, has become a medium for the revival of wine culture in these regions, providing a basis for local people’s identification. This paper shows us how people construct new ways and outlets based on their own regional or cultural characteristics and identities even in the unorthodox situations.
Ping Huang’s “From a Small Town to a World Stage: A Historical Survey on Reputation Extension of Moutai liquor (1915-1935)” discusses the process of how a small regional wine from Moutai has become a national representative wine by participating in international competitions.
The history of Moutai liquor shows that it has grown from a small rural area to a big stage not by accidental, but is closely related to social changes and national development. From a historical perspective, Huang explores how Moutai liquor built its reputation through international expositions, and gradually made this alcohol beverage into a symbol for a country and became a national brand. This paper tells an interesting story of how local agents constructed this nationally and internationally well-known brand step by step from somewhere remote and isolated. The promotion shifted from the small town to the city, and then to the capital city Beijing, and then to the award of a prize in the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. Now Moutai liquor has become the Chinese national brand and its market value is bigger than Coca-Cola and Disney.11
11 Sun Yu and Thomas Hale, “Mao Zedong’s Favorite Spirits Brand Eclipses Western Icons,”
accessed 2020/10/26.
This case study of Moutai can be compared with champagne in France, both stories about how local wine/liquor gradually developed into a well-known brand, that then forms a standard of recognition and becomes representative of an entire nation.12
III. Imagining the “Post-Monopolistic” Drinking Culture
This special issue offers three significant references for Taiwan as well as research on drinking culture.
First, it offers examples of the re-creation of the modes of production and consumption for Taiwanese as reflected in current political and economic conditions; it is especially important after termination of the monopoly system in Taiwan after 2002. Alcohol production in Taiwan has long been restricted under the power and control of the state for nearly a century. Monopolized by the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau,13 manufactures and sales of all kinds of alcohol beverages had only one goal: to increase the revenue of the national treasury.14 However,
12 Kollen M. Guy, When Champagne Became French: Wine and the Making of a National Identity.
13 It should be noticed that in the Taiwanese context, the English term “wine” is used to refer to any kind of alcohol beverage, including wine and others. The Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau, which became the state-owned Taiwan Tobacco & Liquor Corporation in 2002 at the end of the monopoly policy, still produces certain local wines, but it essentially operates as a trader in foreign bulk wines.
14 Like Kinmen Kaoliang, see Chang-hui Chi, “Learning to Drink Sorghum Liquor: Taste and Consumption in Military Front-Line Jinmen, Taiwan,” pp. 170-2.
after terminating the monopoly system and completely opening up the import market for foreign alcoholic drinks, the market share of domestic alcohol has been shifted from an almost exclusive monopoly in the past to its current share of 57% in less than two decades, according to the latest data from the Treasury Department of the Ministry of Finance in 2020.15
Although the domestic alcohol production is shrinking rapidly, the permit for private production also enables Taiwanese local manufacturers to have a brand-new development in the “post-monopolistic era”. Except for the production and sales of traditional cooking rice liquor, the local alcohol industry is getting more energetic, diverse, and developed. Take the local viticulture as example.16 Some private businesses start to cooperate with the existing farmers’ associations to improve their production, marketing, and innovation. Some producers participate in international competitions for increasing visibility.17 The four papers in the special issue provide examples about the transformation and crisis management of the alcohol industry in different regions. This is especially helpful for Taiwanese industry which is currently facing a crisis and pressure to transform itself in the “post-monopolistic era”.
The second contribution this special issue makes is the insight about
15 “Table of Tobacco and Alcohol Market Share Analysis,” accessed 2020/10/26.
16 Two studies on the Taiwanese alcohol beverage industry could be compared: Heng-An Su,
“Rice Wine, the Aesthetic Landscape and Taiwanese Taste,” pp. 12-6; Liang-Chih Chen and Han-Chang Liao, “The Making and Development of a Newly Emerged Local Industry: The Case of Farmers Association Wineries,” pp. 45-7.
17 See the example of Kavalan whisky: Yin-Wei Huang and Liang-Chih Chen, “From Insecticide to Whisky: The Development of King Car Kavalan Whisky,” pp. 109-13。
the “small-scale model.” Here I adjust the idea of “small-scale” and extend it from a territorial context to a bigger frame, including reputation, production, distribution, market, and community. Taiwan is undoubtedly an island with small-scale agricultural production. Taiwanese local drinking culture and alcohol industry are facing all the difficulties related to “small-scale” mentioned above. Four papers offer insights from different perspectives regarding how to establish a new framework and modes of small-scale production in order the overcome various obstacles.
Although the Languedoc has a large production area of wine, it has faced problems of small reputation and small capital in the past centuries; nature wine has always belonged to the minor production and consumption field;
Chacolíes not only faced the difficulties of a small production area, but its value was also fundamentally denied and neglected by mainstream society and industry; Moutai liquor was originally a little-known local alcohol, but it has been transformed into a national representative and internationally famous alcoholic beverage through international competition. These four cases illustrate different ways of reversing the meaning of small and large by adopting different methods and strategies, such as changing the methods of farming, using collective efforts, collaborating with various actor networks, participating in international platforms, or building up local recognition and identity. Of course, we must be aware that there are limits when applying these insights and experiences to the Taiwanese context. For example, when applying the French concept of “terroir,” the first issue we have to notice is that there is a huge gap regarding the perception of the scale of production areas between Taiwan and France.
Secondly, the original context of “terroir” implies the meaning of competition and differentiation; people try to differentiate similar products with unique values in order to compete with others. Both are different from Taiwanese perceptions in general.
The third thing we can refer to is the flexibility, variety, and vitality of drinking culture and industry in response to social transformation. The practitioners of the wine industry in the Languedocian region, whether they were merchants or farmers, jointly set up cooperatives and lobby groups, entered the political system to reform the old policies and organizations, and carried out self-regulation in order to enhance the value of the regional brand. This is a new model of regional team work. Nature wine provides an empirical case for an alternative choice, philosophical thinking for greater value, focusing on harmony between the universe and people in order to replace the existing exploitative relationships. Chacolíes wine has long been criticized for its lack of standardization and too much variability. Yet the wine producers have enlarged the variability of Chacolíes wine and turned the disadvantages into advantages for local identity, and made it an important symbol crossing national boundaries.
Moutai liquor, step by step, went through civil wars in China and the relatively closed national border, participating in international competitions, and continues to strengthen its reputation and status today.
Research on drinking culture is relatively sparse compared with other food areas,18 although alcohol beverages have a long record in human
18 Take Anthropology of Food as an example. This interdisciplinary and multilingual (English, French and Spanish) journal has only one issue on drinking culture over the years. See
history. So far, our understanding about alcohol is mostly from case studies. We need a more systematic theoretical framework to examine the role alcohol beverage plays in human society. This special issue attempts to put forward research approaches from different perspectives including terroir, small- scale modes of production, and economics of singularities to give studies on drinking culture a possible structural frame for future academic development. However, there are still other critical issues which not covered here, and needed to be explored further in the future, such as the dynamic interaction of alcohol drinks with the communities, gender, neo-localism, and the practice of indigenous knowledge.
YANG Fong-Ming École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Chantal Crenn, Marion Demossier and Isabelle Techoueyres, “Wine and Globalisation:
Foreword,” accessed 2020/10/26.
References
Articles
Chen, Liang-Chih and Han-Chang Liao. 2016. “The Making and Development of a Newly Emerged Local Industry: The Case of Farmers Association Wineries.”
Taiwanese Journal of Rural Studies 12: 41-63.
Chi, Chang-hui. 2018. “Learning to Drink Sorghum Liquor: Taste and Consumption in Military Front-Line Jinmen, Taiwan.” Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 47.2:
165-91.
Counihan, Carole and Valerie Siniscalchi. 2014. Food Activism: Agency, Democracy and Economy. London: Bloomsbury.
Demossier, Marion. 2001. “Territoires, produits et identités en mutation: Les Hautes-Côtes en Bourgogne viticole.” Ruralia 8: 141-58.
Demossier, Marion. 2018. Burgundy: A Global Anthropology of Place and Taste.
New York: Berghahn Books.
Guy, Kollen M. 2003. When Champange Became French: Wine and the Making of a National Identity. Baltimore, ML: John Hopkins University Press.
Huang, Yin-Wei黃胤為and Liang-Chih Chen陳良治. 2015. “From Insecticide to Whisky: The Development of King Car Kavalan Whisky.” 從殺蟲劑到威士忌：
金車噶瑪蘭威士忌的發展. In Entrepreneurship and Economic Transformation 創業家精神與經濟轉型, edited by You-Cheng Guo et al 郭祐誠et al. Taichung:
Feng Chia University Press, 108-26.
Karpik, Lucien. 2007. L’économie des singularité. Paris: Gallimard.
Le Bras, Stéphane. 2019. Le ‘petit’: passé et futur d’un concept bien présent. In Être petit dans l’univers vitivinicole: Études et échelles d’un atout, edited by Stéphane Le Braset Laurent Jalabert. Pau: Éditions Cairn, 5-12.
Parker, Thomas. 2017. Tasting French Terroir: The History of an Idea. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Rozin, Paul. 2005. “The Meaning of Natural: Process More Important Than Content.” Psychological Science 16.8: 652-8.
Su, Heng-An. 2015. “Rice Wine, the Aesthetic Landscape and Taiwanese Taste.”
Journal of Chinese Dietary Culture 11.2: 3-39.
Others
【Website】
Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO). “Official Signs Identifying Quality and Origin.” https://www.inao.gouv.fr/eng/Official-signs-identifying- quality-and-origin/PDO-AOC, accessed 2020/11/12.
National Treasury Administration, Ministry of Finance. 2020. “Table of Tobacco and Alcohol Market Share Analysis.” October 15, https://www.nta.gov.tw/Eng/
singlehtml/2679?cntId=nta_36383_2679, accessed 2020/10/26.
Crenn, Chantal, et al. 2004. “Wine and Globalisation: Foreword.” Anthropology of Food 3, https://journals.openedition. org/aof/309, accessed 2020/10/26.
Yu, Sun and Thomas Hale. 2020. “Mao Zedong’s Favorite Spirits Brand Eclipses Western Icons.” Financial Times, June 24 https://www.ft.com/content/
4e78ff84-a95a-4f00-a958-6f3284944a7a, accessed 2020/10/26.
【Film】
Nossiter, Jonathan. 2004. Mondovino. ThinkFilm, DVD, 135 minutes.
Rothwell, Jerry and Reuben Atlas. 2016. Sour Grapes. Met Film, DVD, 85 minutes.
