Wine Tourism and Gastronomy
12.4 Qualitative Analysis
12.4.2 From the Demand Perspective: A Consubstantiality
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context. This gastronomic theme is clearly displayed and communicated by the Gastronomy Santorini Guide which presents the iconic local products, a selection of restaurants and wineries, a history of food and cuisine and the art of tasting mezedes . The theme has recently been boosted by the installation and development of two breweries: Yellow Donkey (Santorini Brewing Company) and Volcan Beer which have helped in the diversifi cation of local alcohol production. These beers, particu- larly Yellow Donkey Pale, are available in some of the island’s restaurants in addition to the wines, with the aim of linking food with beer, such as in the Assyrtico restau- rant in Thira.
The tourist development of areas based on their economic activities raises ques- tions about the transformation of the local gastronomic atmosphere as an asset and tourist attraction, that is to say the understanding and the ability of stakeholders to share this knowledge, these standards and values with temporary residents (tourists) and to include their culture and identity in a tourism project. In Santorini, the dramatization of the gastronomic atmosphere which promotes its attractiveness, visibility, and accessibility as a tourism destination for temporary residents pro- vokes interest in both its liquid and solid food products and its cooking.
This has resulted in an expansion in the number and location of the different tast- ing sites: wineries, cooperatives but also breweries, delicatessens, restaurants, and hotels. The tourism activities and the places where these occur are gourmet, shaped more by trends of taste and gluttony rather than concentrating strictly on wine- making. As such, the “gourmet tourism” developed on Santorini, based on its wine- making heritage, values equally grapes, cherry-tomatoes, white eggplants, beans, capers and honey etc. so that these food crops appear to have be co-produced by the permanent residents as well as by the temporary residents, the tourists, on the island.
In 1992 a specifi c wine tourism center was set up within the Santowines coopera- tive, founded in 1947 in Pyrgos (Santowines Winery & Oenotourism Center) offer- ing comparative tastings with between 6 and 12 wines. Small cards provide information about each wine including its name, category (red or white etc.), the constituent grape varieties and a description of its fl avor profi le (document 1). At any point in the day the visitor can combine the wine with a cheese, cold-meat, and/
or dessert tasting. Directly related to the natural and architectural heritage of the island, these tastings generally take place outdoors on the terrace which invite you to simultaneously drink in the magnifi cent view of the north and south of the island and to admire the caldera which resulted from the volcanic explosion.
In addition, the Pyrgos Wine-tourism Center has an artistic dimension with exhi- bitions and events directly related to tourism. Around the tasting experience, while enjoying the reputation of the wines both inside and outside, the cooperative orga- nizes such notable events as the harvest festival which attracts a lot of tourists on a Saturday night in early August with a music festival. With a dual strategy of com- bining a museum and a festival it is therefore a multidimensional, gourmet place with tasting, discovery, shopping, recreation, culture, and sociability aims. During
“Le Grand Cru Tour” offered by Experience Santorini tour operator, after visitors have discovered the giant Kouloura the tour then continues with a visit to the Faros Market (“ Local products, wine testing and more ”) in Akrotiri (Fig. 12.8 ).
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The tour guide Manuel explains the visit by the originality of this delicatessen which produces a farm-made Vinsanto with a “homemade taste” as well as tradi- tional food products. The owner Maria offers a variety of tastings with wines, spirits, a local sheep’s cheese called Chloro produced on the farm, capers and caper leaves preserved in brine (Fig. 12.9 ), homemade jams and chutneys (from cherry- tomatoes, fi gs, melons, etc. from organic farming), and Koufeto . She also prepares and offers the chance to taste her own sun-dried cherry-tomatoes left out on slatted wooden boards which are arranged around the shop. Respecting the rules of the trade, the tastings use glasses and beautifully decorated glass plates with metal forks. The tourist circuit is punctuated with stops allowing visitors to discover the landscape (Prophet Elias’ monastery and viewpoint for example) and talks and images pro- vided by Manuel on the history, geography, and local social gastronomic traditions.
The “Cultural Village Santorini of the Past” built in Pyrgos is a place which dis- plays and represents this dramatization of the gastronomic atmosphere. Created by a Santorini-born resident, Yiannis Drosos-Chrysos, this cultural center is a recon- struction of a typical Santorini village in which cultural expertise is presented in a very didactic layout. From this cultural expertise, the know-how related to food production and cooking are clearly highlighted. The tour starts in fact with a staged presentation of harvesting techniques and wine-making methods, then continues with, among other things, a demonstration of how cherry-tomatoes and split-peas are processed, how barrels are made and how the local fi re-water ( tsikoudia ) is
Fig. 12.8 Faros market. Source : Olivier Etcheverria
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distilled in the cellars dug into the limestone cliffs. Just as with the wine tourism center, the Cultural Village Santorini of the Past also offers music events and art exhibitions which stimulate the curiosity of the tourists.
The tourist trips around the island strengthen and symbolically enhance the tast- ings. The educational and structured tourism development facilitates access to the product, to its discovery and its purchase. If tourists are not able to go and taste the products where they are produced, the producers will sometimes come and offer private tastings. One such example is the Artemis Karamolegos estate which offers wine tasting at the Zannos Melathron Pyrgos hotel, part of the Relais & Châteaux group. On the terrace of this former shipping agent’s house, six wines are tasted in succession (Santorini Barrel Aged PDO dry white wine, Santorini Assyrtico PDO dry white wine, Nykteri PDO, Terranera PGI Cyclades, Mavrotragano PGI Cyclades, Vinsanto PDO). These different tasting venues become tourist-gastronomic shop- windows which are contact points between the temporary inhabitants and the place, between temporary and permanent residents and among the temporary residents themselves. They “become the receptacle of gestures of recognition and mutual respect, hospitality, neighborliness, friendliness, intergenerational transmission and intercultural dialogue” (from the application for recognition in 2013 of the Mediterranean Diet on the Representative List the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO). These tastings lead tourists to feel at home and take part in the spatial and temporal aspects of the dramatization. They allow people to learn and lead to the acquisition of gastronomic and tourism skills enabling them to get
Fig. 12.9 Homemade capers and caper leaves in brine. Source : Olivier Etcheverria 12 Wine Tourism and Gastronomy
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the best out of their experience and which facilitate the reproduction of them in either the same place or in other tourist areas. This is because the tourists do not just attend these dramatized places, they inhabit and live there while having tourist and gastronomic experiences. By living there, they transform it for tourism. They make it tourist-orientated and so co-produce it. Thanks to the various interactions which they establish, the different stakeholders develop important learning abilities which transform into centralized skills for the place, a process which C. Van der Yeught ( 2008 ) demonstrates is important in the management of tourist destinations. In this sense on the island of Santorini there are many such places with the specifi city of a gastronomic theatrical atmosphere which combine gourmet tourists with the dynamic of skills of a gourmet place. Based on the defi nitions of strategic compe- tence provided by G. Hamel, it is possible to demonstrate that on the island of Santorini there is a concentration, diversifi cation and development of learning- techniques, consisting of tacit and explicit knowledge rooted in the local culture, which can be directly linked to tourists with an informative dramatization.
Finally, is it possible to speak in Santorini about the transformation of a gourmet place by gourmet tourism activities? The place, in the same way as the social and allegorical images ( mythos ) are, is effectively transformed by wine tourism/gourmet tourism. The view from outside, that of the wine tourist/gourmet tourist, is even more important that the view from inside. From this point of view, guides and travel websites are particularly powerful engines facilitating this tourist transformation.
The fl avors and taste preferences are also transformed by wine tourism/gourmet tourism. In fact the quality of solid and liquid foods on the island is a quality defi ned both by and for the tourists. The presence of such original food products and of a rebirth in traditional cooking are only possible due to the tourist dynamic of the island. If the gastronomic atmosphere is dramatized it is, at the same time, enriched by the tourists. With their activities, social representations and the feedback of their experiences they are involved in this movement.