Author(s):
Karen Severud Cook* - University of Kansas
Abstract:
Accompanying the spread of viticulture and winemaking around the world since ancient times have been cultural practices associated with drinking wine. Not least has been the annual celebration of the new vintage, an event which today may be a religious festival, a tourist experience, a commercial venture or all three. During the milennia before the wine bottle, introduced only 450 years ago, made it possible to reliably store wine, the year's new wine was eagerly anticipated. Although hugely popular new-wine events still occur, the year-round availability of wine of many types, qualities and vintages has diminished the wonder of sampling young wine. Wine aesthetes can afford to turn up their noses, for example, at the immaturity and simplistic character of Beaujolai nouveau. In much the same way, the year-round availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, shipped in temperature-controlled containers from distant regions of the world, reduces appreciation of seasonal local produce. Even if not an enthusiast of new wine, though, a geographer will have to admit that it is an interesting phenomenon, varying from place to place under the influence of both physical and cultural environments. While there have been detailed studies of practices involving new wine in individual localities and cultures, a broad-brush look at the spatial and temporal pattern of the new-wine phenomenon so far lacks. Mapping it will not only assemble information from many scattered sources but will also add a new layer of meaning to the existing body of research about the historical geography of wine.
