Paper short abstract:

Croatia’s introduction of taxing the livelihood practice of distilling spirits transformed the status of work and traditions, making previously ordinary ways of life illegal, and led families to weigh their business self-interest against relationships, legal and moral responsibilities, and values.

Paper long abstract:

Distilling is a national Croatian winter pastime. Moreover, farming communities also derive much income from informal spirits sales. Distilling damaged, overripe fruit and the leftovers from winemaking is part of how farmers ecologically process what would otherwise be waste, and historically, it was a relatively unproblematic side-hustle. However, with post-socialist bureaucraticization came a new regulatory regime around distilled spirits, a regime that small-scale farming families have had difficulty navigating as it evolves and its enforcement waxes and wanes.

The paper elucidates the opaque qualities of the vibrant moonshine market by unpacking the values underpinning it and the relationships between the winemakers, craft distillers, and bootleggers of which it is constituted. In the northwest region of Istria, Croatia, taxing and regulating spirits challenged societal values in ways that forced new considerations into long-standing relationships, particularly around the circulation of the bio-waste necessary for distilling. Families sought to maintain livelihoods based on farming, winemaking, and distilling while navigating new regulatory regimes, but those who could not handle such changes retreated from formal business ownership and into the margins of the market. This shift demonstrated that tax can make and unmake markets in sometimes unintended ways. At its core, this paper illuminates how values in Istrian culture intersect in the practice of distilling and are complicated by the introduction of taxes and regulations.