Author(s):
Michael Ripmeester* - Brock University
Johnston Russell - Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, Brock University
Abstract:
Our interest in wine in Niagara stems from three surveys we completed with residents of the Niagara Region of Ontario. Though expecting participants to identify with the Region's pantheon of celebrated heroes, heroines, events, and places, we found that most identified wine and wineries as the thing that gives the Niagara Region its particularity. Our interest here is to explore the manner of this identification. We are concerned with two streams of research. The first explores the ways in which individuals engage everyday landscapes. Given the ubiquity of grape growing and wine making local material landscapes, we were not surprised that local people identify with the wine industry. The second examines the role of the mass media and local entrepreneurs in forging links between wine making and local heritage. In this case, we found that the media and grape and wine industry both make a concerted effort to suture themselves to what locals understand as the Region's agricultural heritage.
