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Paper short abstract:

Concepts such as quality, taste or health can be understood as changing and dynamic social constructs, but are also "objective" for social actors in their world-making activities. The various versions of "wine" are the result of a dynamic process whereby different actors define its qualities.

Paper long abstract:

In Spain, the wine industry represents 1% of GDP. Spain is the country with more vine hectares and the third largest producer by volume and worldwide leader in exports. However, Spain sells the cheapest wine worldwide on average and has reduced its overall consumption in an expanding market.

The plummeting of wine consumption shows the loss of its pre-eminence as a food and cultural basis, in parallel to the abandonment of artisan production without "quality" control. Since 1990 the Denominations of Origin have been generalized and the origin certification associated with quality has been associated to certain organoleptic properties such as grape type, color, volatile, sulfur or alcohol grade. This transformation has generally involved mechanization in the vineyard and winery, as well as sanitation. The process of sanitization raises the question of the loss of probiotic capacity of wine, fermented food and almost exclusive in Mediterranean cultures. But it also shows the difficulty for the consumer to make decisions about health in a context of generalized epistemic uncertainty, and confusion around labeling.

Is it possible to affirm that any type of wine independently of its productive process is healthy? Are health taken into account in the certifications of wine quality?

Starting from a two-year field work with key actors in the Spanish wine world, this paper propose a series of reflections on these issues, highlighting the general absence of research and/or certifications that relate quality and health, despite the growing pressure from alternative producers and consumers in that direction.