The 'terroirist' social movement: The reawakening of wine culture in Spain

This paper explores the emergence of the terroirist social movement in Spain and the controversies arising from it. We assess its role in transforming the Spanish wine scene and wine regions from the combined perspective of rural and social movement studies. Spain boasts the largest surface area of vineyards and the largest volume of wine exports of any country, yet it also sells the cheapest wine and lacks wine zoning policies, which makes Spain unique among traditional wine-producing countries. Considering this situation, a group of terroir-driven winemakers are challenging the Spanish industrial wine establishment. They have built networks in rural areas throughout the country and are actively involved in local grassroots movements, aiming to produce quality wines with added value, recover neglected wine regions and grape varieties, and reinstate traditional wine culture. While the movement displays certain elite and populist tendencies, it remains radical in its attempt to challenge a deep-seated economic model dominated by large companies with a powerful lobby that influences the government.Project 365376112-76112-45-516: Local spaces and social complexity: the medieval roots of a twentieth-century debate. Funded by MINECO, Spain. Project CSO2017-85188-R: The social construction of food quality: mediations between production and consumption in a knowledge based economy. Funded by MINECO, Spain. Network R2014/018, NEDAT; and Grant ED431B 2017/42, Funded by SUG, Xunta de Galicia.Peer Reviewe