The Politics of Wine in Early Modern France: Religion and Popular Culture in Burgundy, 1477–1630 by Mack P. Holt (review)

The study of the intersectionality of material culture with politics and ideology has been a growing branch of the field of cultural history in the last thirty years. This book offers such a cultural history of Burgundy, from its incorporation into France to the rise to power of the Cardinal de Richelieu. Indeed this volume analyzes the dynamic relationships between politics, social class, city and provincial administration, religious experience, and the day-to-day life of the inhabitants of Dijon in the wake of the Reformation. While wine holds a significant place in this narrative, its role is not as central as the title would suggest, and the scope more narrow (Burgundy rather than France). Despite the aforementioned shortcoming, Holt's analysis of wine in Burgundy does reveal interesting and little-known realities of early modern life. Holt observes that while one fourth of the households of Dijon were vignerons at the beginning of the sixteenth century, that number dropped dramatically after 1650, due to a combination of bad weather, over-cultivation, and economic uncertainties following the Wars of Religion. Not only did the number of vignerons decrease, so did their political power and influence. Vignerons' votes in mayoral elections had been recorded as early as the 1520s, which is significant because voting was considered an honorable and honor-deflecting act symbolizing the coming together of the entire population to select a favored candidate. Although never selected as mayors, vignerons were equals to the elite families in this process. Not only did the vignerons form relationships with the other classes through the process of voting, they also developed close ties with the Church by establishing foundations to fund masses for the dead and guarantee God's protection of the harvest. Because these foundations were often paid in wine rather than money, parishes became large wine brokers in the area. Another important way in which the vignerons of Burgundy wove ties with the Church was by rejecting the Reformation: Huguenots viewed masses for the dead and processions as "buffoonery" (137), they critiqued the idea that the Blood of Christ should be reserved to the priest during Mass (which had been tradition since the twelfth century), but worst of all, Protestants decried the use of wine in social settings, which was at the heart of Burgundy's lifestyle, and the source of income of so many (including rich merchants, innkeepers, wine press owners, aristocratic landlords, etc.). Vignerons were therefore strong supporters and allies of the Catholic League, and subsequently of Henri IV (after his conversion to Catholicism). By the 1620s, however, the vignerons had both diminished in numbers and influence: their voting rights were reduced by the imposition of a tax minimum ordered by Louis XIII, and most dramatically, they found themselves banished from Dijon after the Lanturelu uprisings of 1630. Holt chronicles the rise and fall of the winemakers of Burgundy, situating their fate in the realities of economic and power negotiations in which they slowly lost the ability to participate.