Aesthetic logics, terroir and the lamination of grower champagne

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how aesthetic institutional logics and objects shape markets. We focus on the champagne field, for which dominant category conventions include luxury, celebration and protected regional origin (exemplified by grande marque champagne). Our attention, however, is on more recent, alternative conventions, such as site-specific terroir and passionate artisanality (exemplified by “grower champagne”). In analyzing how trade associations, small-scale producers and wine writers represent champagne, we offer an approach that is sensitive to both top-down and bottom-up dynamics of logics. Drawing on the concept of lamination to provide a processual bridge between category conventions and institutional objects (and thus logics), we find that representations from the three actor groups build up – layering and (at least partially) overlapping – such that both dominant and alternative frames come to shape the champagne field. We suggest how divergent representational practices may be directed at and by a common aesthetic institutional object.

KEYWORDS:

• Aesthetic logics
• terroir
• category conventions
• champagne
• lamination
• wine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Smith Maguire is Professor of Cultural Production and Consumption in Sheffield Business School of Sheffield Hallam University, in the UK. Her research focuses on the construction of markets, tastes and value, with special attention to the role of cultural intermediaries and representations in shaping notions of cultural legitimacy.

Steve Charters is Professor of Wine Marketing at Burgundy School of Business in Dijon, formerly at Reims Management School in Champagne. His research focuses on consumer behaviour, and wine and place (including terroir, wine tourism, and territorial wine management). He is one of 380 members of the Institute of Masters of Wine.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 Friedland (2018) explores the complementarity between his approach and that of practice theory, relating Schatzki”s (e.g. 2002) teleoaffective regime with the concept of institutional logic, and teleoaffective structure with that of institutional substance (Friedland 2018, 1368–1369). With regard to aesthetics, the parallel for our examination of champagne would be Arsel and Bean’s (2012) practice theory-led analysis of a home décor “taste regime;” however, we would regard the décor taste regime as an institutional logic, and the categories of soft modernism and craft as the institutional objects.

2 The term viticulteurs (used in the rest of France to denote a grower who does not sell wine) is not used widely in Champagne.

3 Comité Champagne website, “Les expéditions de vins de Champagne en 2018” https://www.champagne.fr/fr/economie/expeditions-de-vins-de-champagne, Accessed on November 2019.

4 2016 production volumes for the top five groups: LVMH 63 million bottles (of which Moët et Chandon are estimated to have over 30 million and Veuve Clicquot around 19 million); Vranken-Pommery 19 million bottles; Lanson-BCC 17M bottles; Pernod-Ricard 13M bottles; Laurent-Perrier 12M bottles. Together these groups account for 23 different brands. The next five groups produce around 25 million bottles (Cumbertafond 2018).

5 The first grower champagne appeared in the late 1880s, but this was an isolated example (Charters 2019).

6 Comité Champagne. Accessed on May 2019. https://www.champagne.fr/fr/economie/expeditions-de-vins-de-champagne, Bulletin d’Expeditions 2018.

7 British wine writers also have a markedly different stance vis-à-vis the dominant framing of champagne than French wine writers who are more likely to be invested in the “national myth” of champagne (Rokka 2015), given the degree to which champagne is entangled with national identity (Guy 2003; Spielmann, Maguire, and Charters 2018). Given our other two actor groups were French, we felt that a focus on British wine writers would be useful for highlighting instances of lamination across dispersed actors.

8 The “quality press” is a British term designating newspapers with national circulation that deal with “serious” issues, and aligns with the traditional term of “broadsheets” (which is largely obsolete, since the move to compact hard copy size and digital platforms).

9 Comité Champagne. Accessed on May 2019. https://www.champagne.fr/en.

10 Comité Champagne. Accessed on May 2019 https://www.champagne.fr/en/comite-champagne/champagne-growers-and-houses/champagne-houses.

11 Comité Champagne. Accessed on May 2019. https://www.champagne.fr/en/comite-champagne/champagne-growers-and-houses/champagne-growers.

12 Association Paysages du Champagne. 2008. Candidature au Patrimoine mondial de l’Unesco au titre des paysages culturels viticoles. Reims: Agence d’Urbanisme et de Développement de la Région de Reims.

13 Vignerons et Maisons de Champagne. 2006. Champagne: From Lifestyle to Wine Styles. Reims: Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne.

14 Union des Maisons de Champagne. Accessed on May 2019. https://maisons-champagne.com/en/appellation/geographical-area/.

15 Union des Maisons de Champagne. Accessed on May 2019. https://maisons-champagne.com/en/houses/the-champagne-houses/.

16 Syndicat Général des Vignerons de la Champagne. Accessed on May 2019. https://www.sgv-champagne.fr/?page_id=1490. Authors’ translation.

17 Champagne de Vigneron. Accessed on May 2019. http://www.champagnedevignerons.fr/Les-champagnes-de-vignerons/Une-marque-collective.html.

18 Champagne de Vigneron. Accessed on November 2019. http://www.champagnedevignerons.fr/Les-champagnes-de-vignerons/Une-marque-collective.html.

19 Club Trésors. Accessed on May 2019. http://www.clubtresorsdechampagne.com/en/home.

20 Terres et Vins de Champagne. Accessed on November 2019. https://www.terresetvinsdechampagne.com/.

21 Club Trésors. Accessed on November 2019. https://www.clubtresorsdechampagne.com/en/member. Accessed on November 2019; Les Artisans du Champagne. Accessed on October 2019. http://lesartisansduchampagne.com/artisans.

22 Comité Champagne. 2017. Les Expéditions de Vins de Champagne en 2016. Epernay: Comité Champagne.