The aesthetics of wine

239 Pages·2012·2.26 MB·English

by  Douglas Burnham

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Douglas Burnham is Professor and å The topic of wine appreciation appears in
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Personal Chair of Philosophy at a surprising number of seminal texts on
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Staffordshire University. He has written aesthetics, those by renowned philosophers
extensively on the philosophy of ranging from Plato to Hume and Kant.
Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche of Wine Yet in all of their writings, wine is a
and philosophy’s relation to the arts. philosophical topic that is quickly dismissed
as irrelevant, or even dangerous.
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Ole Martin Skilleås is Professor of
Philosophy at the University of Bergen. h The Aesthetics of Wine questions this historic
He is the author of Philosophy and reluctance to ascribe aesthetic attributes to
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Literature (2001); several articles on wine, arguing instead that an appreciation
philosophy, aesthetics, and literature; of fine wine should be afforded aesthetic
A
and is a regular contributor to Vinforum, consideration – and can lead to valuable
a Norwegian wine magazine. e aesthetic experiences. Moreover, the
authors reveal how the dismissal of wine
s
“Wines inspire us. Not just as sources of intoxicating pleasure,
appreciation stems from certain prejudices
but as objects of aesthetic appreciation. Here, in rich and T against the ‘bodily’ senses of smell and
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satisfying detail, is a full-length study by philosophers of the taste, inherent biases that seriously
subtle factors that influence our tasting judgments and e misrepresent the nature of aesthetic
perception and judgment. By tackling these
bestow values on wines, both in the glass and beyond.”
T
prejudices utilizing a suite of philosophical
Barry C. Smith, i strategies such as social epistemology and
c
Director of the Institute of Philosophy The phenomenology, the authors reveal a
s unique new formulation of the very
“This is an important addition to the literature of wine. foundations of aesthetics – one that is built
o AesTheTics on concepts such as context, emergence,
As well as being a serious academic study of the aesthetics of
inter-subjectivity, practices, and trust.
wine appreciation, it’s also clearly written and surprisingly f
accessible – a must read for any curious drinker.”
W of Wine For philosophers, aestheticians, and wine
Jamie Goode lovers alike, The Aesthetics of Wine offers
unique philosophical insights regarding a
i
n celebrated drink with undeniable links to
Douglas Burnham and Ole Martin Skilleås the foundations of Western civilization itself.
e
ISBN 978-1-4443-3766-2
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The Aesthetics of Wine

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New Directions in Aesthetics
Series editors: Dominic McIver Lopes, University of British Columbia, and
Berys Gaut, University of St Andrews
Blackwell’s New Directions in Aesthetics series highlights ambitious single-
and multiple-author books that confront the most intriguing and pressing
problems in aesthetics and the philosophy of art today. Each book is written
in a way that advances understanding of the subject at hand and is accessible
to upper-undergraduate and graduate students.
1. Interpretation and Construction: Art, Speech, and the Law
by Robert Stecker
2. Art as Performance
by David Davies
3. The Performance of Reading: An Essay in the Philosophy of Literature
by Peter Kivy
4. The Art of Theater
by James R. Hamilton
5. Cultural Appropriation and the Arts
by James O. Young
6. Photography and Philosophy: Essays on the Pencil of Nature
ed. Scott Walden

7. Art and Ethical Criticism
ed. Garry L. Hagberg
8. Mirrors to One Another: Emotion and Value in Jane Austen and David
Hume
by Eva Dadlez
9. Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor
by John Morreall
10. The Art of Videogames
by Grant Tavinor
11. Once-Told Tales: An Essay In Literary Aesthetics
by Peter Kivy
12. The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach
by Aaron Meskin and Roy T. Cook
13. The Aesthetics of Wine
by Douglas Burnham and Ole Martin Skilleås
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The Aesthetics of Wine
DOUGLAS BURNHAM AND
OLE MARTIN SKILLEÅS

A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
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This edition fi rst published 2012
© 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc
Wiley-Blackwell is an imprint of John Wiley & Sons formed by the merger of Wiley’s global
Scientifi c, Technical and Medical business with Blackwell Publishing.
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to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at
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The right of Douglas Burnham and Ole Martin Skilleås to be identifi ed as the authors of this
work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Burnham, Douglas, author.
The aesthetics of wine / Douglas Burnham and Ole Martin Skilleås.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4443-3766-2 (hardback)
1. Wine–Philosophy. 2. Wine tasting. I. Skilleås, Ole Martin, author. II. Title.
GT2885.B87 2012
394.1′3–dc23
2012015859
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Jacket image: © Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock
Cover design by Richard Boxall Design Associates
Set in 10/12.5pt Galliard by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
1 2012
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For Eleanor and Catherine
(Douglas Burnham)
For my children: Svein Oscar and Agnes
(Ole Martin Skilleås)

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Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
1 Basic Concepts 8
2 Wine as a Vague and Rich Object 35
3 Wine and Cognition 64
4 Aesthetic Attributes in Wine 97

5 Taste and Expertise in Wine 140
6 The Wineworld 176
References 211
Index 220
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Acknowledgments
Telling people that we have been working on a book about the aesthetics of
wine has usually brought forth quizzical smiles, lifted eyebrows, short laughs
and quips about alcohol. We are therefore particularly grateful to those who
have taken us seriously and provided us with the resources to carry out the
work. Centre Franco-Norvegien en Sciences Sociales et Humaines in Paris
funded two workshops with researchers from Norway, France and Britain,
and gave us a room for a third. The Faculty of Humanities at The University
of Bergen – with the indirect assistance of The Research Council of Norway –
funded a conference and a workshop in Bergen. We learned a lot during
those events from the participan ts who are too numerous all to be mentioned.
However, we would like to single out and thank Ophelia Deroy, Barry C.
Smith and Dominique Valentin for their well directed and fruitful criticism
of our work – as well as all we have learned from them. We would also like
to extend acknowledgments and thanks to each other. Writing this book has
been a pleasure and the outcome better than either of us could have hoped
to achieve on his own. We have both been involved in all the chapters and
all the analyses, to a greater or lesser extent in each case, but certainly
amounting to an equal contribution overall.
The Department of Philosophy in Bergen also provided us with the
funding to meet, write and discuss the book at a crucial juncture of its
progress.
We would like to thank audiences at the Universities of Bergen, Dundee,
Manchester Metropolitan, Oslo, Southampton, Staffordshire and Warwick
for their insights and contributions. The same goes for audiences at confer-
ences: The Third International Philosophy of Wine Conference in Pollenzo
(2008), The British Society of Aesthetics Annual Conference in Oxford
(2008), The Nordic Society of Aesthetics Annual Conference in Lahti
(2010), and the Wine and Expertise conference in Paris (2011).
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