Is wine consumption in Britain democratizing? Communicating class and taste through the Saturday Times wine column (1982–2017)

Bibliographic Data

ID12346366
AuthorsNikki Welch (Tube Map Ltd, Edinburgh, UK), Ana Tominc (0000-0001-7894-1685, School of Arts, Social Sciences and Management, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume31
Issue4
Pages652-669
Publication date2019-10-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Semiotics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1035-0330 • E-ISSN: 1470-1219
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10350330.2019.1681069
OpenAlexW2981701932
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited32

The popularization of wine drinking was one of the most significant changes in British drinking culture in the twentieth century, in terms of the increase in both the availability and acceptability of wine for the general population. Based on a discourse analysis of 35 years of Jane MacQuitty’s Saturday Times Wine Column (1982–2017), this paper argues that while wine has been discursively constructed as a drink of the many, the distinction traditionally associated with wine drinking in Britain remains. The data demonstrate how MacQuitty constructs wine through the media stylistically as everybody’s drink, while also constructing and maintaining a distinction between “us” as an in-group whose wine knowledge and taste are distinct from “them.”

Class (philosophy · Column (typography · Consumption (sociology · Geometry · Social science · Sociology · Taste · Wine · Chemistry · Computer Science · Culinary Culture and Tourism · Mathematics · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Wine Industry and Tourism · Artificial Intelligence · Food Science