ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the analysis of economic activity on estates by examining time scales embedded in economic action, and the way economic objectives are shaped by both the social characteristics of the owners and the specific cultural features of wine as a product. It examines the increasing degree of “fit” between categories of formal accounting system and the organizing of family farming. The chapter explores how the economic boom has generated a further discourse about wine quality and enduring natural properties of the district, which are represented as collectively owned inheritance. The marketing strategy for such a wine requires sensitivity to the way its purchase and consumption is enmeshed in range of social actions, meanings and distinctions. Bottles of wine from the same vintage vary enormously in price, but if the people ask a producer whether he or she is operating in a rational market place, that is whether there is correlation between price and quality, question causes some embarrassment.
