The formation and future of regional identity in California's Wine Country

Abstract

This thesis explores the formation of the wine country identity in California’s Napa and Sonoma counties and investigates how that identity is negotiated today as the wine industry slows. Through archival research tracing changes in land use and marketing narratives over the past 200 years, this study finds that Wine Country was the product of placemaking efforts based on the selective heritagisation of winemaking in the region. Further qualitative research, including interviews with viticulturists and a community survey, suggests viticulture may serve as a vehicle for an identity more deeply rooted in a broad attachment to small-scale agriculture and access to nature.