Sustainable Wine. The discursive production of sustainability in the wine field

This chapter addresses the question of sustainability, discussing some of the leading perspectives in wine studies about the theory and practice of sustainability. We start by illustrating how sustainability can be understood as a discursive field with a specific history and discontinuities, a set of conventional dominant definitions and a package of tools and devices to measure, evaluate and hence legitimate such classifications. Then we analyse what we have called ‘certification work’ in order to show how tools such as labels, reports, indicators and, mainly, certification schemes operate as discursive devices in the fields of wine worldwide. Finally, we point out the ambivalent effects of ‘certification work’ in the everyday process of winemaking and the respective practical management of such institutional contradictions. We conclude by critically discussing the ‘culture of sustainability’ in the field of wine and providing directions for a future research agenda.