Contemporary Wine Studies ─ Dancing with Bacchus

There are few, if any, books which embrace wine studies as a broader field. Yet the purchase and consumption of wine whether in trade or domestic settings has huge anthropological significance and can be seen as a multi-sensory and symbolically rich activity that is underpinned by historical, social, cultural and ethical discourses.

This innovative book fills this void by offering a through critical study of wine from social, cultural and anthropological perspectives, with a focus on the translation from theory to influencing industry practice. It achieves this by combining social history and contemporary issues of wine in a democratised market such as how wine has become much more available and affordable, the nature of wine designation and labelling and the different motivations for buying and consuming wine in different geographical regions - whether to get drunk, or as an aesthetic exercise. By doing so it offers new insight into the significance of wine and the role of knowledge, both of which have conceptual and managerial implications in terms of marketing, promotion, consumption and distribution.

This timely and significant contribution, offering a holistic and innovative understanding of wine and the wine industry, is a must read for students and scholars in the fields of wine and social science.

Professor Gareth Morgan holds a Chair at Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University. He specialises in legal issue for the production and sale of wine in the EU, but he also researches regulation in other sectors, much of it using ethnographic methods. He is qualified to WSET Diploma level and he is an experienced wine educator.

Dr. Richard Tresidder is a Senior Lecturer in Hospitality Marketing at Sheffield Business School, Sheffield Hallam University. He holds a masters degree in social anthropology and a doctorate in social semiotics. Richard has published and researched widely in the social and cultural aspects of both tourism and hospitality.