Universalizing particularisms: the EC quest to establish wine appellations of origin as global practice

Appellations of origin tie images of quality to the regional provenance of a product. The EC (European Community) common organization of the market in wine built upon these Western European traditions, which marked a milestone in the narrative and performative universalization of particularist practices. From the 1970s onwards, producers and traders of wine either adhered to or contested the EC appellation of origin norm to ensure sales of their products. The EC became a driving force in solidifying the universalist claim of the marks of origin practice to strengthen the interests of European producers. This quest for wine appellations highlights the importance of compromise and of balancing different economic interests in creating and consolidating EC/EU (European Union) norms. For that, the universalization of particularisms was essential. The article traces the EC’s efforts to consolidate the universal aspirations of the appellation of origin norm and practice internally and externally. Within the EC, this consolidation required the universalization of imagined particularisms as the case of Liebfraumilch exemplifies. Liebfraumilch shows that the EC instrumentalized these particularist exceptions to reconcile competing economic interests, which preconditioned the establishment of the common wine policy. The example of the EC/EU–US confrontations concerning wine further explains how, why and where the EC turned the marketing practice of geographical indications into a universalist claim. In its decades-long dispute with the United States, the EC used international negotiating frameworks such as the OIV and the GATT/TRIPS to strengthen the global validity of the appellation of origin norm and practice. Eventually, the integration of geographical indications in TRIPS provided more protection for the EC/EU norm and reinforced its universal claim. Overall, the universal appeal of wine appellations depended upon the strategic integration of invented particularisms. Thus, the intertwinement of particularist loopholes with economic interests fostered the general enforcement of EC standards for wine.