Geographical Turns and Historical Returns in Narrating French Wine Culture. Issue 1 (4th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dutton, Jacqueline
• Is Part Of: Global food history. Volume 5:Issue 1/2(2019)
• Page Start: 113
• Page End: 131
• Publication Date: 2019-05-04
• Subjects: Geography -- wine studies -- terroir -- Paul Vidal de la Blache -- Roger Dion -- Jean-Robert Pitte; Food habits -- History -- Periodicals; Food preferences -- History -- Periodicals; Diet -- Economic aspects -- Periodicals; 394.1209
• DOI: 10.1080/20549547.2019.1570781
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2054-9547

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The narration of French wine culture in the twentieth century has been markedly influenced by the geographers Paul Vidal de la Blache, Roger Dion, and Jean-Robert Pitte. Their impact is notable in redefining terroir as not only a geological, climactic, and topographical phenomenon, but a space which is also dependent on human intervention and tradition, including social and economic infrastructure. In this article, I will trace the postwar construction and more recent deconstruction of the geographical discourse on French wine culture. It provides an overview of the context in which these geographers' wine writing emerged, exposing the innovations and specificities of work by Vidal de la Blache, Dion and Pitte., This analysis is supplemented by contemporary reviews and subsequent referencing by historians and geographers. In conclusion, I will look at more recent criticism and engagement with Dion's legacy and Pitte's influence, to ascertain the pertinence and the status of their wine research today.