Tasting Wine Making Territories

This chapter explores the intersections between the activity of wine tasting and the law. Certainly, wine is an extremely legislated object. However, not only does law operate on wine ‘from the outside’, but there is also a special law that is secreted by wine itself in its social life. While the social life of wine can be observed in a multiplicity of sites, the moment of tasting may illuminate some interesting facets of the problem. How can wine tasting develop its own inner law? This is the driving question of this chapter. The theoretical lens to tackle the question is territoriology, i.e., a general science of territorial formations. The notions of animism and constitutionalism are also employed as two tools to bring to light the ways in which territories are forged and elaborated. The judgement of a wine, especially in public performances, is a subtle activity where this special material is interrogated following the lines of its own expressiveness.