INTRODUCTION

Inspired by West’s ethnography analysing the anthropology of coffee and fairtrade in Papua New Guinea, I thought the bespoke nature of these speciality coffees was somewhat emblematic of Wine production in France. I was taking a holiday in France with my family at the time of reading West’s book and couldn’t help but notice the conceptual similarities. I wanted to further investigate this, drawing pieces of comparative analysis between West’s research and my own observations in French vineyards. 

I believe that although coffee and wine are fundamentally different commodities, they do share a degree of overlap. I first recognised this when reading the descriptions of Papua New Guinean coffee as ‘full-bodied,’ ‘smooth textured’ and ‘rich,’ descriptive adjectives often associated to wine, red in particular. Then I observed further similarities in terms of the complex production of the commodities, as both are part of large, transnational supply chains, the environmental implications and potential ecological strain, the importance of advertising and packaging in the marketability of the commodities, and of course the role of the products in families and in shaping consumer identities, as individuals select these products in line with the identity they want to adopt or be perceived as. 

I obtained my findings from visiting vineyards and asking the sellers some broad, answerable questions in line with what I hoped to find out. I have included further evaluation in my appendices regarding the vineyards I visited, and the limitations of my project. 

It is important to stress that this project is not an attempt at my own ethnography, nor as comparative analysis but merely observations I was able to make on my holiday. I have done the following out of interest, wanting to learn more about such commodities and broaden my knowledge and understanding of the world.   

FAMILY

The role of the family in both wine and coffee production is notable, however portrayed differently. 

In French winemaking, the family appears to the consumer as a core part of the wine, particularly in smaller vineyards. This is perhaps because the family are so rigorously involved in the production throughout multiple stages, from picking the grapes to sticking labels onto bottles and actually selling their wine too, therefore they feel that this gives their hard work some recognition. In West’s work, I did not get the sense that the Papua New Guinean coffee was marketed with such emphasis on familial relations, although I understood that the families were involved more so behind the scenes, in the production of coffee beans more than the entire process. West suggests that by 1980, every household in the highlands in Papua New Guinea was involved in making coffee, with it being a significant proportion of their income. This was similar to my findings in France, as the sellers told me they worked full time in their vineyards, and the wine production was their primary source of income. 

This difference might be due to the scale of the production networks, and that with larger vineyards, the familial aspect is lost. It might also be related to location of the selling of the products, as many of the wine producers sell their wine directly at their vineyards, thus giving it amore directly personal and sentimental value to the consumer, whereas the villagers in Maimafu do not sell their coffee beans from their coffee groves. 

Another difference is that West highlights gender divisions in the coffee production, with women working more manually and typically put in more labour to the plants, as they also farm and harvest other crops whereas the men adopt different roles. In France, this did not appear to be the case. Whilst in all cases, the women were selling the wine and guiding the tasting, this is not necessarily true of every vineyard, and I found that gendered roles are less distinctive, with men and women taking on similar tasks. One seller told me that she took on the vineyard from her father, who set up the business and worked similarly to how she is now, but became too old to maintain it, so she took it on, but that the job they do are largely the same.

Something I found interesting from France was that one seller highlighted how her family were involved more indirectly, as her parents would often support the business by looking after her children so that she and her husband could go to ‘wine festivals,’ where they would meet other sellers and importers and they would be able to expand their market. This illustrates quite how involved the whole family are in creating and developing the business, as it is a crucial income stream and livelihood for them. This I think is fairly similar to West’s observations, as she states that usually significant proportions of the village, and sometimes whole families are involved in the coffee production in Maimafu. 

Another interesting similarity I found was that West mentioned the deep semantic connection in her own life, as she associates of the smell of coffee brewing to her grandmother, which I found interesting as it denoted the somewhat ubiquitousness of the product in society, as many individuals will have similar connections to such products. I found it interesting how the commodity appeared to connect individuals and family members in this instance, something I believe is also true to wine. Certainly, within my own familial experiences, wine is often used at social occasions such as drinks with friends, or even at family evening meals. It is often used as a means of exchange, with family members strengthening social bonds through the gift giving and receiving of wine, demonstrating how this product carries a larger set of meanings, something West highlights from her own experiences with coffee. In one vineyard, they named a red wine ‘10h10’ and when I asked why, the seller told me it was because her family met at this time every Sunday for cheese and charcuterie, depicting how important this wine was in her family for their own traditions and rituals, uniting the family. 

PACKAGING AND MARKETTING

Both wine and coffee sellers place great value on making the product distinct, however the execution of this is done differently.  

West suggested that the Papua New Guinea wine had to appear to carry a distinct set of meaning and that consumers feel they vicariously experience the exotic meanings through images, and that this is integral for coffee brands as it is distinguishes them in the contemporary marketplace. She mentioned an effective way this was being done was by intertwining the presentation of coffee with images of poverty, nature and native authenticity which align with Eurocentric liberal views around progress, which of course is not achieved by consumers purchasing this product, but through this effective marketing, these abstract ideas become somewhat tangible and real for the consumer. This illustrates the meticulous manipulation of images and branding used to increase the marketability of the coffee, whereas there seemed to be far less attention and value placed on this in the vineyards, from my observations. One seller told me she was surprised that I even asked about it, because to them, it wasn’t a particularly important aspect of their production or of the industry. Instead, the distinction was in the taste, quality and care taken over the production, giving it authenticity more in the actual product than in the branding of it. 

My uncle’s coffee brand uses vibrant packaging with a range of colours, the intention being to ‘stand out among a crowded shelf’ and appeal amongst the typically brown bags of coffee that line the shelves. West also notes the importance of flamboyant packaging, however for different reasons, more to paint the image of an ‘Edenic paradise’ as this appeals to consumers for several reasons, with images of ‘primitivity and poverty’ increasing the value of the coffee as it appears to be a scare resource. The sellers even with vibrant logos rejected the idea that bit might be useful to stand out on the shelves, and instead told me they had chosen this packaging for its aesthetic appeal, not because it would really make much of an impact on their sales. Typically, wine logos are monochromatic and often minimalistic, which could be used to increase the value of the product as it appears more luxurious and refined perhaps, although I do not have evidence to support this claim, it is merely an observation. 

A similarity I noticed was that in both instances, the sellers were keen to plug the ‘organic’ and ‘vegan’ label (also ‘fairtrade’ in West’s case and ‘local’ in mine). I did not ask (as I felt it would come across as rude) but believe this is used to improve the marketability of the product as consumers tend to favour products that they believe have health benefits for them or support good causes.  

RELATIONS IN THE ‘SOCIAL MATRIX’

The levels of trust within the ‘social matrix’ is an interesting point for comparison.  

West suggested that in Papau New Guinea, the level of trust between growers, buyers, sellers, importers, etc. was low, as they were all fairly sceptical of one another and believed that they didn’t do their jobs sufficiently well, for example the growers thought the sellers did not make enough sales to generate more money, and the sellers thought that the growers did not work hard enough to produce maximum yield of the best quality, thus reducing the value of the coffee. At the vineyards, I was told that their relations with importers and sellers was generally very good, and they frequently trade wine across Europe and America, with frequent communication networks and good cooperation. The owner mentioned that it depends on circumstances [such as national events that have an impact e.g. the train network sabotage that happened during my visit, as this impacted the supply chains] but on the whole they are trustworthy and rarely encounter any problems. At my place of work, however, we have faced some issues with the wine sellers on multiple occasions. It is worth noting that I have been there for 3 years, and it is somewhat inevitable that within that time frame, problems are likely to rise, and to be fair to the sellers, it has not happened often, and is quite an irregular occurrence. Within my experience there, we have had significantly late orders, causing depletion to the wines stocked on the wine list, causing upset among customers; the sellers have also failed to inform us that some wines have been discontinued, the lack of communication here proving problematic; we have also received the wrong types of wine from them in the past, causing further issues with stock. 

IDENTITY

Identity is arguably the area with the greatest overlap, as the main reason many individuals drink speciality wines and speciality coffees is arguably related to how they want to be perceived. Due to the nuance and variation within both commodities, many individuals take pride in developing niche preferences that make them appear knowledgeable and refined, with acquired taste.  

A classmate of mine said once ‘I didn’t like coffee until I went to Costa Rica, and since trying other coffee, I now know why.’ Whilst this statement appears quite pretentious, especially for a young student, it is somewhat representative of how individuals use products such as coffee and wine to identify with something in society, whether that is the stereotype of a wealthy private school a student in this case, or as an insightful and inquisitive learner keen to understand more about how things are really made. Commodity choices, notably coffee and wine, reflect how individuals wish to be perceived to a certain extent, something I found in both West’s research and my own observations.  

I noticed a key difference in the consumer culture between the products, however. I found that coffee trends appeared to be far more volatile than wine, which is a commodity based more on traditions.  

This is not to generalise, as there are of course many exceptions, but the consensus that I obtained from family members, discussions in the vineyard, and observations in the marketplace was that wine is appealing to the older generation far more than the young. One French resident told me ‘the young [in France] don’t drink wine anymore. They just drink craft beers and spirits now,’ highlighting the decline of wine in youth culture thus making it less susceptible to volatile trend patterns unlike coffee, which has a large proportion of its consumer base among youth generations. This potentially also marks how wine is disembedding somewhat from French culture generationally. This is a difficult claim to support without further evidence, however might be worth considering for the future of wine and a commodity. Currently, this argument is fairly weak however and because wine remains to be a core aspect of ‘French culture’ this therefore means wine perhaps is less dependent on trends because is so culturally embedded this will be difficult to erode quickly. Furthermore, old wine typically can have more value than young wine, another point associating it with tradition and dissociating it from the volatility of social dynamics and trends. 

ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT

West mentions that coffee has ‘radically transformed ecology and society in Papua New Guinea,’ something which I agree to be true to France as well.  

A notable difference is that wine production is not transformative as such, as it has been a large part of French culture for many centuries, thus has become and entrenched aspect in their culture, making it not as revolutionary as Papua New Guinean coffee production, as it is already well-established in comparison. Ecologically, it is clear in France that wine production is a dominant feature of the landscape. This obviously depends on region, however from my observations, in the regions I visited, the vineyards were almost everywhere, in some instances each field as far as the eye could see was a vineyard, highlighting the widespread impact of wine production on the ecology of France, a similarity with West’s work, as she highlighted how much of the Papua New Guinean highlands are now covered with coffee groves. 

Another difference is that West mentions that coffee is native to Ethiopia, not Papua New Guinea, but has been brought there to grow speciality coffee, whereas many varieties of wine grapes are native to France, such as Sauvignon and Pinot varieties, thus grows more naturally here, reducing the anthropocentric impact on the environment. 

CONCLUSION

To initially address the elephant in the room, wine and coffee are different commodities, which undoubtably is an issue for the scope of the comparison of this project, however I do believe that I have found sufficient correlation between the two to suggest that the comparative link is not too tenuous, and there are notable areas of overlap despite the obvious differences. 

Identity is conceptually the aspect with the most similarity between France and Papua New Guinea, as the reason many consumers select the wines and the coffees that they do, and the environments in which they consume them is, is crucial to their perception of their self-image and public image they wish to present. The reasons for consumer choice I have found are most similar here, as the products are fairly similar in this sense, due to their speciality nature, and the opportunity they give consumers to invent themselves in some way.

Familial input is the next most similar area comparatively, as I found that they were involved in the production process in both instances, which is crucial to the entire network of these commodities. However, a key difference I noticed between the two was in the contrasting gendered roles, as women had very distinctive jobs in this growing process in Papua New Guinea whereas in France, from my findings, male and female roles were not distinguished, and both genders were able to carry out all roles required (note – there was no mention of those who do not identify as ‘male’ or ‘female’ in either Wests work or my observations, hence this has not been included in the write-up, however I whole-heartedly support the LGBTQ+ community, and do not want to appear transphobic by my binary description of gender roles. For the sake of this piece of work, this is how the concept of gender appeared to me and stretching it to non-binary individuals would have been beyond the scope of the project). In France, the familial significance seemed to increase the marketability of the product and was almost capitalised upon to increase sales whereas I found no indication of this in West’s work. Another similarity is in the semantic connection both commodities have familially, that is seemingly a somewhat universal experience for many consumers, which I have investigated through Wests experience, the vineyard owners, and my own. 

Ecologically, wine is not as transformative in France as coffee has been in Papua New Guinea at least in the current landscape, however the production of both commodities undoubtably has had a significant impact on the environment, as coffee groves in Papua New Guinea and vineyards in France both took up large proportions of the landscape, with the production seemingly everywhere at points.

Relations were not such a similar area, however in both wine and coffee production, there was a level of mistrust and scepticism within the ‘social matrix,’ however to much different extents, as West seemed to highlight this as more of an issue than what I found in the wine production. 

The packaging aspect was the least similar, as I found that West placed lots of emphasis on this as a core aspect of the coffee production in Papua New Guinea whereas in France, the sellers seemed to think it had a negligible effect to the selling of their wine. Both however were keen to mention the ‘organic’ (or equivalent) nature of their products, perhaps as this is increasingly on the public, and thus the consumer’s, agenda, but in the whole this aspect was the least convincing in this project.

appendix – self evaluation

Although this is not a proper study or piece of research, reflection and evaluation is nevertheless integral, not only to my learning process but also to highlighting my own pitfalls within the observations to better understand what is known, what is unknown, and where to improve upon my attempts if I were to scale this up in the future.  

As I was on a family summer holiday, not a research trip, this project suffered the limits of time. Whilst we enjoyed our 2-week holiday, this is far less time than a proper ethnographic study would take. I have been fortunate to study French for a few years at school and visit France several times throughout my life already, and I would tentatively say that I am, to some extent, familiar with the French language, culture and customs already, thus giving me a slight advantage in this sense, as the location was not totally new to me. Additionally, this idea was not the primary focus of the visit to France, hence I only visited 2 vineyards (one in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, the other in the Occitanic region) as we had other activities, and visits to see family and friend planned. 

I visited only very few vineyards, and therefore what I found can only really be applied to these vineyards and not generalised to all, findings will differ geographically across villages, regions, nations, etc. and individually between different vineyards, as each take different wine making practices, with varying degrees of familial input, profit margins, ecological implications, etc.  

Furthermore, the vineyards that I did visit were relatively small. Regardless, they both had international trade links although comparatively they were not large vineyards, something they themselves acknowledged. This perhaps skewed my findings a bit, however as I have mentioned, I am not concerned by this as I do not seek to generalise what I have found.   

I was also constrained by social etiquette, as there were some questions particularly in regard to pricing and profits that I did not feel comfortable asking as in both French and British culture, such discussion is often regarded as rude or impolite. This arguably left gaps in my work, rendering it incomplete, however it is not an ethnography, and I felt it was more important to appear well-mannered and considerate. 

As my level of French is fairly poor, I was further constrained linguistically. All sellers I spoke to were French but spoke excellent English, which they were keen to practice. Not being native, this meant that at points, the description was not always greatly eloquent, however at no point did I feel confused or as though I misunderstood any answers.  

As I used West’s work as a framework, I tried to keep all my findings largely within the parameters of what she discussed, thus limiting the scope of the research as the conditions of comparison are limited to the similarities between West’s research and my observations in the vineyards. Furthermore, I couldn’t go into as much depth due to my limited methodology, so in particular, I struggled to find out much about the production, something West described frequently in her book. 

As I don’t drink wine, I am not hugely familiar with it as a product. Perhaps due to my family taking great interest in it, this has compensated for the gaps in my knowledge as I have a basic understanding of it, and fairly frequently see it being drunk at home or at other social occasions, however I did have to ask lots of extra questions and conduct further secondary research in order to learn more about the product.  

ETHICS 

I have been in touch Paige West, who has agreed for me to publish this essay here.

Everyone I interacted with has been kept anonymous, including locations, with permission granted to be included.  

I kept the question asking (not ‘interview’ as such) process as open as possible, and avoided being pushy. I did not ask anything personal or provocative, I merely few broad questions about their wine as an interested customer (which as a group we were, as my family bought multiple bottles of wine on both occasions). I asked if I could ask them some questions prior, if they wouldn’t mind, and would write up the answers if they consented, which they did. I also assured them that they could stop at any point and did not have to answer any questions that they did not want to, although none of my questions were personal, and I worked hard to make them appear as answerable and open-ended as possible, to allow them to answer the questions in the best way they could.