Provenance as a filtering and framing device in the qualification of wine

Abstract

This research examines how provenance – where a product was produced, by whom, how and when – features in the work of cultural intermediaries in the Australian premium wine market, at two different stages in the career of a wine. First, evaluations of provenance attributes (in terms of sincerity, tradition and transparency) serve as filters through which wine promoters identify market-worthy wines; second, those attributes are strategically deployed to frame the wine as a worthy choice for consumers (focusing on the use of the winemaker as a framing device). The article offers a distinctive account of the qualification of wine, and makes the case for a cultural economic conceptualization of provenance as a negotiated, accomplished quality. In foregrounding wine promoters’ emotional attachments to provenance attributes of wines they choose to promote, the research highlights the affective dimensions of markets, which are made, in part, through the consuming passions of cultural intermediaries.

Keywords:

• authenticity
• attachment
• cultural economy
• cultural intermediaries
• provenance
• qualification
• wine

Acknowledgements

The author thanks former CMC editor Lisa Peñaloza and the three anonymous reviewers for their exceptionally constructive feedback on earlier drafts; and both Curtin University's Faculty of Media, Culture and Society for a Visiting Fellowship, and the University of Leicester's Department of Media and Communication for a period of study leave, which facilitated the initial phase of the research.

Notes

1. “Premium” refers to wine priced at (AUD) $5 per bottle.

2. Sources of information on the Australian wine market: number of wineries and share of total crush data from “Industry Overview” and “Winefacts”; export and import data from “Wine Australia Fact Sheet: Industry Growth – A Story of Achievement” and “Global Wine – Australia in Perspective”; wine export price category data from “Australian Wine Sales At A Glance – 2009”. These are all available from the online site (www.wineaustralia.com) of the industry's major trade body, the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation. Examples of provenance-oriented marketing strategies include Regional Heroes (“wines that are from somewhere rather than wines from anywhere”), one of four main “personalities” in the “Wine Australia” brand message (see, for example, “Why Australia?,” also available on www.wineaustralia.com); the “A+” campaign launched June 2010, which promotes the specificity of regional origin and the personal narratives of winemakers (see www.australiaplus.com); and the “Australia's First Families of Wine” initiative, launched in 2009, that highlights the 12 most prominent and longstanding winemaking families in Australia and their “over 1200 years of winemaking experience” (see www.australiasfirstfamiliesofwine.com.au).

3. Respondents are identified by their pseudonym.