Was wine a luxury before oidium-phylloxera?

[mbanu]

I'm trying to determine when wine got it's "luxury" status. I know that that premium wines have been around as long as there have been people willing to pay top dollar for them, but somewhere along the wine timeline people started viewing all wine, wine as a category, as being a luxury item, not just good wines.

I was trying to figure out why this was so, and thought perhaps it might have been the fault of the one-two punch from the oidium parasites and then the phylloxera blight back in the 1800s.

My reasoning is that the supply problems started in the 1840s when oidium started killing off the vinyards, and then the phylloxera hit and it didn't really end until at least 1880s when they finally brought back phylloxera-resistant rootstock from Texas.

So the supply of wine dries up, prices soar, only the well off can still afford to purchase it, this situation remains the same for 40 years, and then by the time the crisis has passed and the prices can go back down, they don't, because all wine has come to be viewed as a luxury item.

A nice theory and all, but I'm really not knowlegable enough to know if it's even remotely true. Any help??

[Brad Ballinger]

I think the "luxury" designation applies more to nations like the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom more than many other countries, and has nothing to do with diseases suffered by vines. In most mainland Europe countries, where wine is part of everyday life, many serviceable wines are cheaper than Coca Cola.

I think is much more a lifestyle or cultural issue than a vineyard disease issue. You will hear the following phrase much more in this country than anywhere in Europe or Australia: "Oh, you're having wine. What's the occasion?"

[Daniel Rogov]

The issue of "everyday" versus "luxury" wines goes back quite a ways. During the reign of the Pharoahs, some wines (grape and other fruits) were set aside with special seals and in special amphorae for the nobility; certainly during Roman days wines were already categorized, not so much by appelation but with specific regard to quality, the best being designated on their containers not only with the harvest date but the vineyard from which the grapes came. More than that, during Roman times, wine negotiants played a major role in determining not only to where wines would be shipped throughout the Empire but the prices that would be attached to them.

Question for Brad: You use the term "coca cola". I've heard that term somewhere. Is it vitis vinifera???

Edited July 8, 2005 by Daniel Rogov (log)

[jayt90]

The list of Classified Wines of Bordeaux was drawn up in 1855, before phylloxera, and based on selling price. And we are still using it. The first great growth wines were the ones that fetched the best prices, and only recently have a few others, like Le Pin or Mouton, elbowed their way in because of merit.

I have noticed a steady increase in prices of almost all wine, greater than inflation, but geared more to middle class buying power in the U.S., since the introduction of the Boeing 747. With easy travel, and shipping, from one continent to another, it was only a matter of time before good wines became pricier. Although there may be a lot of new vineyards coming along, as in Australia, or Eastern Europe and the mid-east, there is an established pecking order, and high prices will prevail unless there is a major world wide decline in demand.

Edited July 9, 2005 by jayt90 (log)

[bvus]

Question for Brad:  You use the term "coca cola".  I've heard that term somewhere. Is it vitis vinifera???

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I think it is actually vitis rotundicolia.