Tyler Colman started researching Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink while he was a graduate student in the economics department at Northwestern. The book, published in July by the University of California Press, compares the byzantine, quasi-self-governing appellation system of Bordeaux’s wine growers with that of the more government-regulated Napa Valley producers and shows how those individual systems, along with other factors, determine which wines end up in stores, how much they cost, and what they taste like. Today Colman, who lives in New York City, teaches about wine at NYU and blogs about it at DrVino.com. This week he’s in Chicago, teaching a class at the U. of C. and making a couple other appearances to promote Wine Politics. Simon & Schuster will publish his next book, A Year of Wine: Perfect Pairings, Great Buys, and What to Sip for Each Season, in November.
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When I grew up in Chicago we didn’t drink wine very much. We have some horrible memories that we joke about—sparkling Catawba at Thanksgiving. When I lived in Europe—in France for a year and a half and Spain for six months—I got more into discovering local wine. But when I came back to Northwestern we had grad student get-togethers on the weekend, and it was a very international group of students, and people would bring wine from their home countries. It wasn’t anything age worthy—$10 and under—but it was fun to share wines from around the world because wine’s a great prism for seeing into someone’s culture.
Some older student told me that you really had a pick a subject that you’re into to make the long haul of the dissertation road. Political economy looks at comparative economics questions of different countries, and so the industrial sector is a common lens of analysis. All these serious things like machine tools and automobiles and semiconductors have all been thoroughly analyzed. So when I proposed a study of the wine industry in France and America, my committee, once they got over their belly laugh, said go out and research it and report back to us. Things like food and wine were really not on the agenda when I proposed this study in 1998, but now I’m pleased to say ten years later I get a lot of e-mails from grad students all over the world who are looking at food and wine projects.
That law allows Illinois wineries to bypass distributors and sell directly to Illinois consumers, but it also benefits the distributors, who were losing money to out-of-state retailers but weren’t necessarily motivated to get hard-to-find small-production wines in stores. You ran up against this law trying to organize a wine tasting here in Chicago, right?
Thu 9/18, 6 PM, Just Grapes, 560 W. Washington, 312-627-9463, reservations recommended, $60 (includes copy of the book).
Fri 9/19, 5-7 PM, Sam’s Wine & Spirits, 1720 N. Marcey, 312-664-4394.F
Sat 9/20, 2:30-6:30 PM, University of Chicago Gleacher Center, 450 N. Cityfront Plaza, 773-702-1722, grahamschool.uchicago.edu, registration required, $150.
