On Oenological Authenticity: Making Wine Real and Making Real Wine

Abstract

Wine authenticity is actively required by producers, distributors, consumers, and others. The authenticity of wine is constantly created, performed, and contested. This is more than just a matter of economics. Wine animates a complex of human tastes, pleasures and identities. Wine authenticity is examined in long-term historical perspective. Consumer demands for authentic wine go back many centuries. Self-conscious performances of authenticity by wine-makers are more recent inventions, being elaborated particularly in France, French innovations then spreading globally. Wine authenticity involves a constellation of environmental, cultural, legal, political and commercial factors. Yet wine-making is not just another industry which fabricates authenticity.