Market Making and the Contested Performation of Value in the Global (Bulk) Wine Industry

Abstract

Recent economic geography scholarship has emphasized (1) the performative work of market making (i.e., the geographies of marketization perspective) and (2) value-creation practices in markets (particularly the geographies of association and dissociation perspectives). In this article, we propose making stronger connections between these bodies of literature to gain a better understanding of how the performative constitution of markets and of brand and commodity value in markets are connected. More precisely, we argue that not only the b/ordering of the market and market outside (i.e., the world outside the market) but, equally, b/ordering processes within markets are essential components of performative market making and key to the contested attribution of value to commodities and brands. We flesh out this conceptual argument by empirically investigating the global wine market, which is characterized by high significance of brand building and of symbolic qualities—particularly geographic origin. In recent decades, the global wine market has been marked by a massive globalization process, strongly linked to the trading of wine in bulk form and outsourced bulk wine assembly for retailers’ private labels. Building on ethnographical research, we analyze the associative and dissociative b/ordering of the bulk wine market vis-à-vis the (premium) wine market, arguing that this performation struggle is key to the attribution of value to wine. Bearing in mind that we are witnessing an increasing aestheticization of consumer goods in the global economy, resulting in a dramatic rise in branding activities, contested b/ordering processes within markets, we argue, will grow in importance in the future.

Key words:

• geographies of marketization
• geographies of association and dissociation
• value creation
• wine industry
• social studies of economization

Acknowledgments

The research for this article was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft RA 3195/2-1 and STE 2559/2-1

Notes

1 While the term performativity was more common in the early social studies of economization/marketization literature, many scholars have since opted to speak of performation to avoid the focus on language and description connected with the term performativity, and to highlight enactment and the role of material devices in and for market making.

2 For a recent discussion of the growth of supply chain capitalism from a social studies of economization/geographies of marketization perspective, see Berndt and Boeckler (2023).

3 United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. UN Comtrade Database. https://comtrade.un.org/data (no longer available).

4 Thanks to Deutsches Weininstitut for generously supplying their unpublished data.

5 Due to our focus on Chile and New Zealand as bulk wine producing countries, and Germany as a bulk wine bottling country, our empirical material is clearly geographically limited. Nevertheless, many of the actors we spoke to argued that bulk wine production in the European and North American markets does not differ fundamentally (important differences particularly concerning national regulations notwithstanding). In China, a large importing country, which is particularly important to Chilean bulk wine producers, our interviewees reported that the differences seemed much more significant.

6 We wanted to study the WBWE ethnographically in 2020, but the fair was cancelled due to COVID-19. In November 2021, the fair went ahead, and we were able to conduct fieldwork there, but the complex COVID situation in Amsterdam at that time (partial lockdown and travel restrictions) significantly affected the fair in terms of the number of exhibitors and delegates. Thus, for the analysis of the WBWE, we draw on material ethnographically gathered at the 2021 fair (observations and a wealth of informal talks with participants) as well as material published on former WBWEs.

7 The only way wines bottled in-market can be distinguished from estate-bottled wines is through a tiny reference to the bottling facility on the bottle’s label—a reference that is legally required, at least in the EU.

8 For an interesting discussion on the political dimensions of shared brand building through protected designations of origin, taking the examples of France and Italy, see Carter (2018).

9 Wine brands without any indication of geographic origin do exist but are rare. Hence, similarly, the blending of wines at the bottling companies’ facilities is the exception rather than the rule. What does play an important role in terms of quantity is the transaction of bulk (wine) for other purposes, such as the production of brandy, but we did not empirically focus on this (lowest price) segment.

10 In fact, a container with wine in a flexitank can transport up to two-and-a-half or even three times the volume of a container full of bottled wine. Consequently, this reduces the environmental impact of the wine trade. In addition, with the rise of flexitanks, the shipping of empty wine bottles around the globe—New Zealand, for example, does not have a bottle-making facility, so all bottles must be imported—can be significantly reduced.