This title was a prize winner at the OIV (International Organisation of Vine and Wine) Awards 2023.
The History of Rioja Wine offers an informative, chronological and in-depth account of Rioja wine from the mid-nineteenth century to the present.
This book illuminates the fascinating and largely unknown success story of Rioja wine. Drawing on illustrative sources, the volume traces the economic, social, cultural and political evolution of Rioja wine from the 1850s to the present day, concluding with a reflection on the lesson its appealing success story offers to any lover of history and wine. The book is adorned with historical photographs throughout, the majority previously unpublished.
An ideal companion both for students interested in Spanish history and wine enthusiasts more generally, this volume offers readers the opportunity to uncork the secrets of Rioja’s wine.
By:
Ludger Mees
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 476g
ISBN: 9780367618117
ISBN 10: 0367618117
Series: Routledge Studies of Gastronomy, Food and Drink
Pages: 254
Publication Date: 29 July 2022
Audience:
College/higher education
,
General/trade
,
Primary
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
1 An intruder at the royal table; 2 Everything started with a crisis; 3 Taste and status: the invention of the “gourmet” in early bourgeois society; 4 A voice in the wilderness; 5 The Médoc connection: transnational knowledge transfer or industrial espionage?; 6 Conquering the Queen’s palate; 7 Thwarted: too modern for the time; 8 Quantity beats quality: the challenge of the phylloxera plague; 9 The comeback: shape and consolidation of a brand; 10 New wine, new conflicts: industrial wineries, small winegrowers and the state; 11 The globalization trap: challenges and opportunities for Rioja wine in the twenty-first century
Ludger Mees completed his PhD in History at the University of Bielefeld, Germany, and was Assistant Professor at the same institution before taking up a lectureship at the University of the Basque Country in 1991. Since 2004 he has been full Professor of Contemporary History at the University of the Basque Country, and between 2004 and 2009 he was also Vice-Chancellor. He is author, co-author or editor of 17 books and about 120 articles and book chapters in the fields of nationalism, social movements, historiography and agrarian history. His recent publications include Una Historia Social del Vino: Rioja, Navarra, Cataluña 1860–1940 and The Basque Contention: Ethnicity, Politics, Violence.
Reviews for The History of Rioja Wine: Tradition and Invention
On the one hand, Mees's new publication is a weaving together of different research strands, a synthesis of his preoccupation with the history of wine-making in the Rioja region. On the other hand, this book is an attempt to achieve something new, something that goes beyond his past research. The chosen secondary title of the book, Tradition and Innovation , gives a hint at the hinge on which the author's history of Rioja and its wines hangs; it is the oscillation between two poles - one conservative in nature, the other one exploring the new - that explains much of the region's wine-producing story [...] Thanks to Ludger Mees's excellent guidance and this gem of a book we now know more about the history behind Rioja wines, how they came into being and finally reached our palates. -Andreas Hess, expert from book review, 'The Grapes of Mirth' in Dublin Review Books.