The Culture of Wine: Overview
“What do they of wine know, who only wine know?"— CLR James (paraphrased)
The seventeen-episode series of “The Culture of Wine” is complete, and the podcast is available exclusively on patreon.com. The reason I became obsessed with wine wasn’t simply the taste, or how wine was made, or why Merlot produces different wines from Cabernet Sauvignon. Those, of course, were some of the many reasons, but what really gripped me was where wine comes from: the people who made the wine I was drinking, and where they lived. Through just one glass, a wine transports the drinker across the world, to places known and unknown, to history and to wars, to kings and to farmers.
That’s the foundation of “The Culture of Wine” series: to explore the many places in which wine is made and to discuss how local culture influences styles of wine, and vice versa. The series looks at every major winemaking country in the world, and shows how wine sheds so much light into the culture, history, and people of each country.
Here’s the full list of episodes:
France — starting of course with France where wine is central to the country’s culture, history, and identity, influencing countries all over the world
Spain — the third largest producer of wine in the world, wine reflects the many contradictions in Spanish identity and its difficult, complex history particularly in the twentieth century
Portugal — a country with a unique identity on the edge of Europe looking out towards the Atlantic; its wine is a story of colonialism, empire, decline, emigration, and uneasy ties with the British
Italy — who can think of Italy without images of food and wine? Yet Italy is an incredibly complicated country to understand, which is why there are so many regions, such different levels of quality wine, and hundreds of varieties often with various names
Greece — a history of Turkish rule and military dictatorships has held the Greek wine industry back, but it goes back thousands of years to ancient Greece and there’s an exciting revival based on the identity of its different regions
Germany — perhaps more popularly known for its beer, Germany is central to the history of European wine; the ups and downs of the industry parallel the many wars Germany has been involved in
Austria and Hungary — once connected through the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the history of these two countries is a gateway into Central Europe and a reflection of their cultures based on intellectualism and cultural debate
Former Communist Europe — The Soviet Union did few favours for the wine industry in its member states (except Bulgaria), but there’s a long history of wine production in these now (just about) independent countries
Mediterranean North Africa and West Asia — a clunky title for this episode which reflects the geopolitical and religious tensions that have held back wine production in countries such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Israel
South Africa — wine production dates back 400 years, but apartheid and an emphasis on quantity over quality held the industry back during the twentieth century; wine (and brandy) provide an insight into the cultural and racial tensions within South Africa, as well as providing a joyous celebration of such an ecologically diverse country
Australia — wine has parallelled the evolution of Australia as a modern country: fortified, British, rebellious, no-nonsense, defiantly doing its own thing, steeped in history but also embracing the modern
New Zealand — the self-styled youngest country in the world, New Zealand’s wines emerged from nowhere in the 1980s and now the winemakers are some of the most dynamic anywhere; the wines reflect the underdog attitude of the geographically isolated islands
Chile — geographically one of the strangest countries, Chile’s wines reflect the people’s approach to life: fast, based on the now, commercially-driven, not always attuned to detail, argumentative, all made with attitude
Argentina — yet another country which saw military/fascist dictatorship during the twentieth century; wine helps explain Argentina’s turbulent economic and political past, present, and future
Uruguay — a small country wedged between Brazil and Argentina, Uruguay punches way above its weight, especially in football and to a lesser extent in wine: welcome to one of the most fascinating countries in the world
USA — dominated by California, wine is made across the USA; it reflects many characteristics of the country—snobbery and reverse snobbery, exceptionalism, the importance of luxury status symbols, pride in being the greatest, fear in not being the greatest, dynamism, and conservatism, a success story that never seems quite real
UK — in winemaking, the UK is new to the scene but it has influenced wine trends around the world for centuries: Bordeaux, Sherry, Port, Madeira, Champagne, Australia, none of these would taste like they do were it not for the influence of the British. Add in all the wine exams the British have created, it makes sense to end a series on the culture of wine with the UK.
