Introduction

Abstract

This is a book about politics, power, taste, and wine. In particular, it is a historical study of the way in which the taste for wine—by which I mean the type of wine and the way it was consumed—both reflected and constituted political power in England, Scotland, and ultimately Great Britain, between 1649 and 1862. These dates do not mark the absolute beginning and end of wine as a politicized and politicizing commodity, but they do demarcate an era in which the politics of wine was particularly intense. They also correspond, it should be stressed, to the time in which England (Wales inclusive) and Scotland went from being warring nations on the margins of European affairs to being a united if not entirely unified kingdom and the world’s premier economic and imperial power. As such, a study of taste formation in this period provides a fascinating window into English, Scottish, and British state formation, identity creation, and cultural practices that had both a national and global impact. But most of all, the history of the taste for wine in this period reveals how political power was constructed and manipulated by the interrelated ideas and practices of class, masculinity, and national identity. In short, wine was integral to British political culture.