The taste for the particular: A logic of discernment in an age of omnivorousness

Abstract

This is a pre-publication version of an article that will appear (forthcoming) in Journal of Consumer Culture. The final, published version has further revisions and is shorter. Where possible, please cite from the final article. AbstractThis article provides an analysis of two leading specialist wine magazines, Decanter and Wine Spectator, and the codification and legitimation of a 'taste for the particular.' Such media of connoisseurship are key institutions of evaluation and legitimation in an age of omnivorousness, but are often overlooked in research that foregrounds the agency of tasters and neglects the conventionalization of tasting norms and devices. The wine field has undergone a process of democratization typical of omnivorousness more broadly: former elite/low boundaries (operationalized in the paper through the Old/New World dichotomy) are ignored, and a discerning attitude is encouraged for wines from a diversity of regions. Drawing on the magazines' audience profile and market position data, and a content analysis of advertising and editorial content from 2008 and 2010, I examine the differences in the use of four legitimation frames (transparency, heritage, genuineness and external validation) for the provenance elements of Old and New World wines. The analysis suggests that the Old Worldtypically French-notion of terroir, on which the traditional Old/New World boundary rested, has been democratized through the particularities of provenance. Yet, the analysis also reveals continuing differences between the two categories (including greater emphasis on the heritage and external validation of Old World context of production, and on the transparency and genuineness of New World producers), and the preservation of established hierarchies of taste through the application of terroir to New World wines, which retain the Old World and France as their master referent.

The social positions of taste between and within music genres: From omnivore to snob

“…Chan and Goldthorpe, 2007; Katz-Gerro, 2002; Rankin and Ergin, 2017) and cultural domains (e.g. Berghman and van Eijck, 2009; Smith Maguire, 2018; Warde and Gayo-Cal, 2009). Allowing for some important variations, the core of the concept of omnivorousness has enjoyed empirical replication many times over, where education, income and/or occupational prestige associates with breadth and composition of cultural tastes.…”

Kulturní kapitál a maturitní zkouška: analýza školních seznamů literárních děl

“…V neposlední řadě analýza ukazuje, jakým způsobem se školství podílí na produkci a reprodukci kulturních hierarchií, vytváření a potvrzování představ toho, co je hodnotné, legitimní a významné. V souladu s dalšími studiemi zaměřenými na různé procesy legitimizace (Lizé, 2016;Smith Maguire, 2018) lze říci, že postmoderní propozice o rozpadu a rozvolnění kulturních hierarchií v současných společnostech nebyly zcela oprávněné. Přestože cesta od studia školních seznamů k odhalování mechanismů internalizace určitých principů rozlišování kulturních statků je poměrně dlouhá a vyžaduje použití daleko širšího metodologického aparátu (srov.…”

Wine, geology mapping and the value of place in McLaren Vale

“…This works to enhance the development of a regional narrative for McLaren Vale as a whole, reaffirming its boundaries and its claims to special qualities based on a particular configuration of physical and social landscape (including a coastal ‘Mediterranean’ climate, a depth of viticultural history and a sense of community cohesion) (Santich, 1998). As I will discuss in the following sections, projects to map out flavours and qualities in Shiraz wines according to defined geological ‘districts’ both necessitate and feed qualitative differentiation of land within the Vale, providing a basis by which producers may be able to attract higher prices for their wines through appeals to uniqueness and scarcity (Harvey, 2002; Smith Maguire, 2016).…”