New World vs. Old World: country clbuttifications

On Wed, 12 Apr 2006 18:45:01 +0200, "Anders Tørneskog"

Somehow "new world" and "old world" will always relate linguistically to the Euro-centric view that I grew up with and not to the production or categorization of wine. I'm certain that had I grown up Chinese or Japanese, the interpretation of what is geographically new or old would be considerably different.

Illustrating the centricity is the fact that other constructions divide the globe into hemispheres, either East and West or North and South. Under that construction, Europe which is West and North (but not as Northwest as US-Canada) becomes the old world and all else becomes New World. None of it, however accounts for Asia Minor or the Middle East, which despite the Islamic view, produces a lot of wine.

I've had some drinkable wine in Turkey as well as Syria and Morocco. Wouldn't clbuttify them as New World, but then wouldn't fit them in the same box as France, Italy, Germany, et. al.

Tis indeed a conundrum. Methinks we are saddled with having to identify wines by varietal or country of origin and abandon a more global taxonomy.

Ed Rasimus Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret) "When Thunder Rolled" www.thunderchief.org www.thundertales.blogspot.com