In my last semester of my food studies program, while finishing up my thesis, I decided to take two wine classes. Having achieved a WSET 2 certification I thought I knew what to expect. The first class was a general history of wine while the second was a Spanish wine certification. This is not meant to be a review of these classes, Iʻm not going to name them, but more a reflection of my experiences taking the classes.
Part of my experiences in my food studies program included reevaluating my understanding of history and understanding everything I had been taught came from a POV different from my own. In the program, I began to understand my own biases and privilege and how they shape my view of history. Placing food as central to history allowed me to center women of a variety of privileges in my historical thinking. The wine history class challenged me, as it was a return to history the way I had been taught in the last century. It allowed me to question what events I thought were central to the development of wine and consider why other events were centralized. Now it is obvious to me that wine scholars trained by the wine industry are not looking critically at the wine industry and that the wine scholarship I pursue in the future will likely be from outside the industry. However, the class did teach me the vocabulary to talk more fluently with those in the industry.
The second wine class was a Spanish wine certification class that I expected to pass with ease. I spent my junior year of high school in Barcelona, and while it was not the ideal program for me, experiencing the city at such a young age was definitely life-changing. It was also where I initially learned to challenge traditional histories and understand historical events could be viewed through multiple lenses. While the program was supposed to strengthen my daily Spanish, I met people who would only speak to me in Catalan or Engish, never Spanish. This complicated my understanding of European history and began challenging my understanding of the problems of official boundaries.
The Spain I encountered in the wine certification class textbook was simplified into a unified nation, only occasionally touching on regional tensions. The instructor tried to bring in these regional tensions but was limited by the program. The experience drove home the point from the wine history class, that wine classes taught by the wine industry come with a POV meant to benefit the industry, not to encourage critical thinking about history.
Had I been able to remember that I was studying for a certification and not spent time reflecting on my time in Barcelona, I would have likely passed the certification exam which I failed by two or three points (at some point I will look at the letter again). However, the class did make me want to go back to Barcelona as an adult.
The semester drove home the point that food (and beverage) studies challenge who and what POVʻs are centralized in histories of events. In these cases, the wine industry chose views of history that centralize the need for a unified wine industry with strict global rules, regulations, and definitions. As usual, I need to know the rules, regulations, and definitions, before complicating them.