ABSTRACT
In the study of alimentary changes and of their relationship to taste, wine can be analysed sociologically as one of the most complex and heterogeneous types of food. Yet despite the vast outpouring of literature devoted to the analysis of food consumption, it is a subject that has largely been ignored, even though wine stands out as a distinct object of sociological inquiry because of its syncretic nature. Wine has long been reputed for its nutritional values and has frequently been defined as a potent, spiritual substance and a masculine beverage. As bread and wine are among the principal elements of Christian theology, the consumption of wine relates to the tensions between excesses in alcohol consumption and the Judeo Christian religious belief of self-control. Historically, the cultivation of wine was inextricably linked to the religious uses of wine and it cannot just be understood as an ordinary commodity. Yet if its production was intrinsically linked to religious communities, its consumption was from the earliest times 94an object of intense social exchanges and conveyed a real sense of prestige. Wine can be described as a food for hierarchy, and it contributes to the hierarchization of society.
