Viticulture and Winemaking in Contemporary Rural Change: Experience from Southern France and Eastern Australia

Abstract

New supply chains incorporating quality production, often by means of organic or biodynamic farming, more direct sales to consumers and an expansion of agro-tourism have become established in Western European farming during the past 30 years. This paper examines evidence for such changes with respect to recent changes in winemaking in the middle Hérault valley in southern France and eastern Australia. The changes in winemaking in both countries conform closely to those described in the literature on alternative food networks in Europe with an emphasis on the production of locality-specific, quality wines, often using environmentally-sensitive cultivation practices.

Notes

“Chaque nouvelle saison apporte … son lot de producteurs de talent inconnu, presque surgis de néant.”

Criteria used were communes which had experienced more than a 40% change and which had at least four independent winemakers in 2000 (to show an increase) or in 1988 (to show a decrease).