Red and White · The Globalization of Wine in the Anthropocene

Red and White: The Globalization of Wine in the Anthropocene

The world is changing in the Anthropocene—not only the climate, but also entire ecological systems causing changes to soil, air and even the nutrients found in a many foods. Humans and the technologies they create and deploy are entangled in these ecological systems across the earth, for better and for worse. More than ever, humans are managers of global processes that we have a very limited understanding of. This has consequences for wine not just as an alcoholic beverage, but also as the embodiment of cultural heritage for communities around the world. We are only now beginning to see the consequences of industrialization on climate and the global impact of warming temperatures, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels have on the people and places where wine is an essential way of life. This is not the first time the vines and their communities have faced similar challenges. Prohibition in the US had tremendous implications for the production, consumption, and taste of wine. While the industry eventually recovered, and even thrives, American wine was transformed into a product unrecognizable to consumers of the previous generation. These changes eventually transformed vineyards across the globe and embedded new practices within other national traditions. Understanding how the wine industry responded to both the implementation and the repeal of Prohibition has lessons for dealing with natural disasters and climate change in the 21st century. It also has lessons regarding the reshaping of the landscape and the transformation of the cultural heritage of wine producing regions in the wake of globalization and industrialization. Red & White: The Globalization of Wine in the Anthropocene (Red & White) uses state-of-the-art and innovative historical techniques to understand how climate change and industrialization/globalization are not only reshaping landscapes and communities, but also the culture surrounding and flavors embedded in wine. The overarching question Red & White asks is how has science and technology been leveraged to expand the wine industry globally in the 20th and 21st centuries and how has that shifted the taste of the wines as the climate warms? Given its interdisciplinary focus and contemporary implications, Red & White will appeal to a number of diverse communities including academics, industry professionals, hospitality managers and the general public to better understand how the climate crisis is reshaping the industry and the flavor of wine across the globe.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union