Regional dynamics in the globalising wine industry: the case of Marlborough, New Zealand

Abstract

The rapid expansion of the New Zealand wine industry has rested largely on a specific wine commodity form, Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Global demand for a specialised product has provided the impetus for substantial development at the regional level, an increasingly complex industry structure, and for the intrusion of international capital. This paper explores the contests and relations within the industry through attention to the commodity's value‐added chain, wherein recent developments are interpreted as a contest over the brand rents. The contemporary situation therefore may be explained through overlapping organisational and geographic framings of these relations: producer versus buyer‐driven dynamics; regional–national and global interests; and inter‐ and intra‐corporate strategies. The commercial contest for control of the region‐varietal commodity reveals some paradoxical outcomes in which the region is reaffirmed as a site of investment in an evidently globalised industry, and the significance of who controls what fraction of the value chain is re‐asserted.

Quality regimes in agro-food industries: A regulation theory reading of Fair Trade wine in Argentina

“…It has a long history in valorizing a variety of quality dimensions, and one of the most complex and sophisticated 'quality infrastructures'. Furthermore, it is going through a major process of restructuring in which the battle-lines are drawn along the application, challenge and re-interpretation of different quality content (Barbera and Audifredi, 2012;Barham, 2003;Hayward and Lewis, 2008;Ponte, 2009). Wine is a relatively recent addition to the portfolio of Fair Trade products, having only been certified for the first time in 2003.…”

Entre Anciens Mondes et Nouveau Monde ? Transcender le lieu et l’espace dans la géographie contemporaine du vin

“…Le lieu demeure dans ces transformations une constante essentielle, autour de laquelle s'articulent la reconstruction de l'ancien et du nouveau, l'évolution des traditions et le déplacement des modernités : on assiste ainsi à une transformation des rapports entre les différents acteurs, réseaux et pratiques dans les différents sites vinicoles. (Hayward and Lewis, 2008).…”

Between Old Worlds and the New? Transcending place and space in the contemporary Geography of Wine. Introduction

“…Places as far apart as Bordeaux or Burgundy in France, the Riverina in Australia, Mendoza in Argentina and Khao Yai in Thailand have been affected differentially by these processes. A focus on patterns and processes at the global level, then, conceals significant and diversified local and national transformations, resulting in the specific physical characteristics of places and landscapes becoming embedded in and dependent on increasing differentiated global markets and sets of local preferences (Hayward and Lewis, 2008).…”

“…And as with the Thai industry, there is a sense of Local parochialism and nationalism attached to English wine that the industry can promote and feed off that does expand the appeal of the product: wine as a global product often requires a specific local resonance and connection to be successful, at least initially. frames, is useful to understand the diverse and dynamic ways in which places, regions and nations become linked into global expressions of the wine industry (Hayward and Lewis, 2008;Vaudour, 2002;Overton and Murray 2011). Geography as discipline, then, has much to offer the analysis of the wine industry, but there is also much that those working on wine have contributed to geographical thought, as these papers and the attached bibliography attest.…”