Towards a sociology from wine and vina aperta

In considering the wisdom of pursuing the development of a sociology of wine, I outline several dangers associated with sub-disciplinary specialization, including overlapping risks of silo-ization, sequestration, and scope and process reduction. In particular, I discuss the attendant risk of thinking of wine as vinum clausum, that is, as a closed and static object. In contrast, I outline an open, processual approach to wine as vina aperta, and consider three, interrelated features of conceptualizing wine as processual, interconnected, and constituted through interdependence between humans and the physical world, others, and themselves. Drawing on a number of process-oriented sociologists, and a range of existing sociological research on wine and related topics, I advocate for a sociology from wine, that is, for wine as an invaluable point of departure for a historically- and processually-oriented sociology.