The Folklorization of French Farming: Marketing Luxury Wine in the Interwar Years

Abstract

Late nineteenth-century tourists looked to nature for beauty, so Burgundy, with its industrial and agricultural landscapes, was perceived as a region of historical interest but not as picturesque. Yet as tourist interests after the Great War encompassed folklore and gastronomy, the region’s image came to be promoted through its food industry. The earlier aristocratic image of its wines was superseded by one of growers engaged in a labor of love. The wine-producing economy became emblematic of Burgundy. Since scenery was a prerequisite of regional identity, it was the vineyard, the theater in which Burgundy’s luxury output was crafted, that came to typify the area. Fin dix-neuvième, pour les touristes, seuls les sites naturels à l’exclusion des espaces industriels et agricoles constituent des paysages, faisant de la Bourgogne une région historique sans paysage. La rénovation des objets du tourisme après guerre incluant le folklore et la gastronomie permet à la région de se constituer une image valorisant son industrie alimentaire et renverse l’imaginaire aristocratique des vins bourguignons, pour un univers vigneron. La stéréotypisation de la Bourgogne se fait autour de son économie viticole. Le paysage typique élément de la check-list identitaire régionaliste devient viticole, espace productif désormais distinctif comme mise en scène artisanale de la production de luxe.

From Myths to Markets

“…These regulatory “rules of the game” institutionalized the myth of terroir . Jacquet examined the establishment of the appellation d’origine côntrolée in Burgundy, reviewing 109 documents that the comité submitted to obtain legal recognition in 1935, the year the AOC was formally established [Jacquet 2009; Laferté 2011: 690]. Each category identified in the documents related to an “imagined, idealized, and traditional aspects of local viticulture” [Laferté 2011: 690].…”

“…Laferté notes that in the initial establishment of the AOC regulation, terroir came to be solidified in national regulation in an invented, “strict regulation of the past through ‘ usages locaux, loyaux, et constants’ ”, redefining the market and the product in a way that benefitted growers. The AOC agreements themselves codify and perpetuate the terroir myth: “the AOC system helped to fix the mythical image of an ahistorical terroir producing a wine with a taste unchanged since time immemorial” [Laferté 2011: 690]. And despite the strong centralizing and culturally homogenizing role of the Third Republic, the state actively supported terroir and regional corporatist organizations, as the “heritagization of a disappearing world was seen as a way to maintain social unity in a climate of social tensions and economic difficulty” [Demossier 2011b].…”

“…To both producers and consumers, “the (Saint Vincent) festival gives the impression of stability, creating a collective memory and provoking the recollection of past time” [Demossier 1997: 52, 54]. The idea of the reinvented past is dependent upon the creation of the modern: “tradition and modernity in the countryside are not so much successive historical periods as perspectives constructed simultaneously in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries” [Laferté 2011: 681], “by inventing tradition and reconstructing their past, they define themselves and help to structure the identity of Burgundian viticulture in a competitive and changing world” [Demossier 1997: 54].…”

“…Jacquet examined the establishment of the appellation d’origine côntrolée in Burgundy, reviewing 109 documents that the comité submitted to obtain legal recognition in 1935, the year the AOC was formally established [Jacquet 2009; Laferté 2011: 690]. Each category identified in the documents related to an “imagined, idealized, and traditional aspects of local viticulture” [Laferté 2011: 690]. Laferté notes that in the initial establishment of the AOC regulation, terroir came to be solidified in national regulation in an invented, “strict regulation of the past through ‘ usages locaux, loyaux, et constants’ ”, redefining the market and the product in a way that benefitted growers.…”

Dijon, ville d’art et capitale de la gastronomie: L’invention d’une image urbaine (1919–1935)

“…Le succès de la manifestation est rapide : Pendant l'été suivant, une mission officielle du Ministère du commerce et des affaires étrangères donne à Gaston-Gérard la possibilité de visiter la Hollande, la Suède, le Danemark et la Norvège. La lutte contre la prohibition -les marchés américains, russes, allemands et autrichiens sont désormais fermés aux vins français -exige une campagne de sensibilisation pour venir en aide aux viticulteurs français, et bourguignons (Laferté, 2006(Laferté, et 2011. Le thème initial de la conférence s'adapte alors au gré des cités traversées, mais le maire n'oublie jamais sa bonne ville : « Dijon et la Bourgogne : terre des artistes et des grands vins » à La Haye, « Dijon, ville d'art et Capitale des grands vins » à Utrecht ou encore « Dijon, ville d'art, capitale gastronomique et des grands vins de France » en terre scandinave.…”