Wine Advice Columns between Distinction and Democratization

In this project, Nikki Welch and I explore wine advice columns by the British wine critic Jane MacQuitty in The Saturday Times in the last four decades. We observe how MacQuitty describes and recommends wines, focusing especially on description of wine taste, provenance and food matching. We argue that describing wine taste using everyday expressions and metaphors, rather than those developed by the wine tasting industry, she brings wine closer to everyday person. Despite this, connection of wine with high cultural capital remains, and can be seen through her positioning of herself (“us”) and “them” as different when it comes to knowledge about wine and its appreciation.