Liberty and order: wine and the South Australian project

Abstract

South Australia’s British settlement was an exercise in systematic colonisation along Utilitarian lines. Founders believed that careful planning of the colony would allow it to flourish to the betterment of all inhabitants. Wine was regarded as both an economically important commodity and a moral good, with the ‘sober’ wine-drinking Mediterranean countries idealised as a model for production as well as habits of consumption. In the region of McLaren Vale, the themes of ‘order’ and ‘liberty’ upon which the Colony was founded can be seen to persist in present attitudes and practices surrounding wine and viticulture, and in perceptions of the physical and social landscape. Winegrowers see their terroir in terms of a physical complexity within which they can exercise creative agency, yet this creativity is constrained by a range of social values around matters like community cooperation and sustainable viticultural practice. Wine production, as well as consumption, has both an entrepreneurial and a moral value.