Rachel Black

A unique opportunity to examine the themes of food production, sustainability, and ecology, open to all those working in the field—entrepreneurs, teachers, students, and other organizational representatives.

When:
Friday, September 11 to Sunday, September 13, 2009

Where:
University of Gastronomic Sciences
9, piazza Vittorio Emanuele
12042 Pollenzo – Bra (CN)

Fontanafredda
15, via Alba
12050 Serralunga d’Alba (CN)

The Presenters:
Andrea Bairati, Luigi Bistagnino, Gianluca Bocchi, Rachel Black, Valter Cantino, Raffaele De Lutio, Adriano Favole, Eric Holt-Gimenez, Tim Lang, Luca Mercalli, Carlo Modonesi, Loretta Napoleoni, Clara Nicholls, Raj Patel, Ezio Pellizzetti, Carlo Petrini, Andrea Pieroni, Claudia Ranaboldo, Vandana Shiva, Nancy Turner, Richard Wilk

The Structure:
Focusing on 8 disciplines—economics, law, environment, social systems, production systems, traditional knowledge, evolution and co-evolution, and policy practice—the conference comprises 2 plenary sessions and 1 day of workshops centered on 8 key questions pertaining to each of the respective disciplines, all culminating in a round-table discussion aimed at providing multiple responses to each question.

The Participants:
The conference is designed for entrepreneurs, teachers, students, institutions, and professionals operating within international cooperation—all those seeking to delve into the issues linked to the complexities within food policy.

The Fee: €800 per person, including:
- participation in the sessions
- 1 buffet dinner, 1 buffet lunch, 1 formal dinner (with show)
- shuttle service between Pollenzo and Fontanafredda
- conference proceedings
- English and Italian translation of all presenters

Click here for more information.

Slow Food Vancouver, along with the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, will be hosting the 2nd annual Bike the Blossoms Tour tomorrow (April 18, 2009). For more information, see the Slow Food Vancouver web site. Come out and enjoy spring and some delicious eats.

As part of this event, I will be giving a lecture at 1pm at the Britannia Community Centre just off Comercial Drive. The title of this lecture is “Hungry for diversity: Food and culture at the table, in the kitchen and the market” I look forward to seeing you there.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to present my latest research on Slow Wine, which is a general call for developing a movement that applies the Slow Food philosophy to the wine industry: “defend biodiversity in our food supply, spread taste education and connect producers of excellent foods with co-producers through events and initiatives.”

Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega was kind enough to live blog the seminar:

Dr. Rachel Black on Slow Wine

(03/06/2009)

Close

4:08

Have you all heard about “Slow Food”? It’s a movement (started early in the 1980s) over 80,000 members. It is a non-profit, largely volunteer organization and defines its mission through: - Defense of biodiversity - Taste education - Connecting with producers and co-producers The snail as a symbol oof slow resilience is the movement’s logo. Interestingly, slow food finds its roots in wine (Carlo petrini – he founded Slow Food in 1989 and remains a central figure of the movement).

4:09	A few producers tried to create stronger wines by adding methanol in Italy a number of years ago. This reminds people about what has happened in the Italian wine industry and whatever credibility it had.

4:10	Support the movement towards quality and reduce the emphasis on mass production.

4:11	Rachel met with engineers working in water issues, wine producers, etc. This is the wine producing area (Piedmont) – where the scandal happened is related to this area. Slow food started in the town of Bra. It really started in the heart of wine country.

4:13	Slow food fighting against the encroachment of fast food. A guide to eating well in Italy. The restaurants participants must meet certain standards. Enogastronomic guide books help shape the Slow Food movement.

4:15

“Take the time to enjoy food and share with friends and family”. Why Slow Food hasn’t translated into Slow Wine. “Eating as an agricultural act” – Now Rachel describes the movement of Vinaroon and biodynamic wines. Rachel and Anthony have pondered – Why slow foods don’t translate or adopt into the wine thing?

4:16	http://www.farmsteadwines.com – “Farmstead Wines connects you to artisan farmers who make rare, handcrafted wines of sustainable provenance. Now, drinking fine wine is an agricultural act too.”

4:19	Like many other wine guides, the Italian Wines guide places emphasis on the wine quality and offers ratings.

4:20	The Wine Guide does not judge the wines based on the production method. It doesn’t give any consideration for respect for tradition or sustainability. The value judgement is based on the sensory perception and tasting. So, what does make it slow?

4:22	Why is something similar to Slow Food not possible for the Wine Guide? Can you think of any other product that is described in such abstract terms? Possibly artisan beer, and ethical coffee but we don’t talk much about ethical wines.

4:24

Tasting notes – “The Wine Spectator” “88 [Points] Chateau – Cantemerle – Haut – Medoc 2006 $ 31 – Blackberry and sweet tobacco follow through to a medium body, with slightly aggressive tannins and a medium finish. Chewy. Needs time to mellow. Best after 2011. 33,330 cases made – J.S.” – Wine Spectator, March 31st, 2009. What did we learn from the Tasting Note? We are given a judgement about when the wine should be drank but nothing about how the wine was made and the implications of its production method.

4:26

After analyzing the discourse of a sample of Wine Guides and blogs, the comments disassociate the wine with its production methods. This method is different from talking about food (we talk now more about the ingredients and the origin of the ingredients – and these elements form a judgement of quality). What are the perceptions of quality? Preparation and provenance of ingredients are value judgements of how food is judged now.

4:27

Why isn’t that happening with wine? Rachel’s fieldwork in Italy was very much with wine makers. When she came to North America she started talking to people who know from very little to a lto about wine (and who enjoy the wine). They rarely mention ingredients or production methods (in her interviews, that’s what she found).

4:28	Very little knowledge of the technical details was found in her interviews. Her informants said that they didn’t have the technical knowledge about wine when it comes to describing the wine and the production methods.

4:29	Do you ever think about the production methods of wine when consuming it? Sometimes ( 0% ) No, why would I? ( 0% ) Yes, of course! ( 100% )

4:30	Wine hasn’t reached that point where methods of production are relevant. In France location and provenance is key in wine (Charles Menzies’ comment)

4:30	Knowledge is extremely local.

4:32

Is this the case with other beverages? Do people have much knowledge about the process and production method? There is a whole field of journalism that is specific to wine. Vodka and beer are just recently more now. The slow food approach would say ‘we need to really learn what is taste, what is quality’. At University of Gastronomic Sciences – there are courses that are on beer making, etc. Question – I’m wondering about scale – If you go to a wine tasting in Sonoma or Napa you will definitely hear about the production techniques.

4:34	British Columbians are now gaining an interest in wine.

4:35

Raul Pacheco-Vega (me) made a point about environmental policy and the design of environmental policy instruments that are based on information dissemination (regulatory schemes – eco-labels) – eco-certification schemes. In her interviews, expert opinion plays a part in perceptions of quality, that are mainly subjective and associated with taste. These are initial interviews.

4:37

Rachel is noticing another trend – the language that wine consumers are using is “healthy and tasty”. Some individuals expressed guilt about their wine consumption but they justify consumption by saying ‘it’s natural, and healthy’. They felt that, compared to other forms of alcohol – less fattening, helps digestion, goes well with food, etc. What Rachel started to see is that wine consumers go through the ‘natural process of fermentation’.

4:38	Rachel’s further research – perceptions of nature, technology, the use of technology in wine making. Fermentation isn’t quite as natural as some people think. Dr. Van Buren developed genetically modified yeasts so that the wine wouldn’t give as much headache.

4:41	Viticulture and agriculture as natural processes? There is a human-plant relationship that has to do with the development of technique and knowledge on how to tend the grapevine. This is frequently left out of any kind of discussion. Now there’s a large movement towards organic wine production.

4:43	This idea of nature – there are so different perspectives – in the Lange there is no biodiversity, there’s just a monoculture – yet so many people think that it is so pretty, so natural, so pristine. There are places where you should and where you should NOT grow grapes.

4:46

There are concerns about carbon footprint – the wine industry needs to address it and think about it. There is a mis-conception about what viticulture is. Then we move into the cantina – the winemaking facility. Fermentation is a natural process. A grape grows and it wants to ferment. The berries are covered in natural yeast. But if you only get grapes ferment on their own you’ll get nasty wine.

4:49	Taste education connecting people to producers and place (Barbaresco – Martinenga) The concept of GreenWashing – producers want to play on the idea of green marketing. There is also a great need for taste education.

4:51	Seminar’s over – now on to questions – I might continue liveblogging or just focus on the talk.

4:58

2009 Learning Community Seminar, Dr. Rachel Black, March 6th 4.00-5:30 @ ANSO 205, University of British Columbia

Is it possible to develop a concept of ‘Slow wine’? The first task will be to create a working definition of ‘Slow Wine’ starting with the basic principles of the Slow Food philosophy. This paper then looks at the theoretical issues associated with a ‘slow’ philosophy applied to the wine industry, with specific reference to Italy. In particular, the way in which perceptions of nature, technology and quality intersect and influence production and consumption will be explored here. Case studies from the Italian and international wine industry will be used to look at new models for and challenges to a ‘slow’ and sustainable approach to wine.

For the past year I have been thinking about how people perceive wine as a natural product. Often wine drinkers are shocked when they learn about the elaborate chemical process that is wine making and the amount of human control and manipulation that is involved in making any type of wine. No, fermentation is not some magic process that happens all on its own (or at least not well). Does the technical, chemical nature of wine make it less natural?

Certainly some wines are more natural than others but all wine from vine to barrel is a process of human techne interacting with nature. Like all forms of agriculture, grape growing is the human hand bending the will of nature to produce a controlled and desired outcome. When you give it some thought, agriculture can be seen as a very violent act against nature. The grape vine, vitis vinifera, does not want to produce fruit at all when left to its own devices. Vines must be carefully pruned, trellised and tended throughout the seasons in order to produce fruit that is acceptable for wine making.

Many people view this heavy laying of human hands upon nature, whether it’s pruning a vine or controlling a fermentation process, as adulteration. But hang on a second, what is going on here? The students in my anthropology of food course and people I interview about wine and food have led me to believe that perceptions of nature in food and wine are often connected to a romantic view of agriculture and artisinal production. So much of what we see in supermarkets and wine shops, on labels and in advertising tries to erase the connection between human craft and the application of technology. In the end, people are often shocked to learn how most food and wine are actually made.

You have perhaps noticed a growing desire amongst many consumers to reconnect with their food, how it is made or grown and where it comes from. I can see a similar trend developing with wine: just take a look at the proliferation of organic and biodynamic wines on the shelves. However, there is still a great deal of confusion about what these terms mean. In many ways buying organic has become a moral choice that many shoppers face as they stare down the certification labels on bottles and packages. Are organic and biodynamic wines more natural and what does that mean to the wine drinker? Are ‘natural’ wines somehow seen as better in quality? Is this related to the wine drinker’s perception of nature? Is it a moral choice that makes that wine purchase more acceptable and therefore even taste better? Perhaps ethics and morality do add a positive psychological aspect to taste perception. A blind tasting would certainly tell another story but the reality is that, while standing in front of a shelf or rack, most wine drinkers work through a complex decision process that can include factors as disparate as gustatory experience, the aesthetics of a label, perceptions of nature and quality as well as price as they select a wine to enjoy with dinner. These are a few of the questions that I am grappling with in my current research that explores the perception of nature in wine.

How people look in their glass and what they see says a great deal about larger relationships within human ecology. Focusing on wine is just one way of looking at how people perceive and talk about the natural world around the.