[Anthropgrad] Seminar by David Raftery: 'Place, people and process: an anthropological analysis of the logic of fine wine production in the Clare Valley, South Australia'

[John White]

Anthropology Friday Seminar Series. Semester 1, 2009. Milgate Room, AD
Hope. Friday, 8th May, 3pm.

 

Seminar by David Raftery: 'Place, people and process: an anthropological
analysis of the logic of fine wine production in the Clare Valley, South
Australia'.

My research is an anthropological analysis of the social relations of
wine production in the Clare Valley of South Australia. I bring a
critical ethnographic focus to the emergence of disciplines of 'a fine
wine complex': the relationship between fine wine and discrete and
unique tracts of land, and creative processes of viticulture and
winemaking. 

The closer integration of world wine markets through trading agreements
has required that wine regions be codified in strict topographic and
legal terms known as Geographical Indications. The business strategies
of Australian industry bodies emphasize that the quality of Australian
wines will be better recognized when the relationship between these
regions, the wines that are produced there, and the people who produce
them are more richly articulated. My research in Clare investigates the
evolution of Geographical Indications in the Clare region, an indication
that is now uncontroversial.  However, as one travels within the Clare
region, and examines social relationships smaller regions, interests
become more varied and more overlapping.  

This paper enquires as to the limits of codification, and the
difficulties in constituting geographic space and occupation skills as
intellectual property. 

 

All welcome!