In Vino Veritas/Communitas/Civilitas? O Cywilizującej Towarzyskości Konsumpcji Wina / In Vino Veritas/Communitas/Civilitas? On the Civilising Sociability of Wine Consumption

The article refers to selected elements of the sociology of Georg Simmel. It accords in general with his theory in regards to the structure of social relations, and deals in particular with the idea of sociability and the meal. The author assumes that a collective embibing of wine is a specific form of culinary consumption constituting an area for manifesting sociability. Basing himself on interviews with wine consumers, the author’s aim is to reveal the manifestations of sociability during the common consumption of this drink and to indicate the elements determining the shape and order of the social interaction: for instance, common standards of taste. As the character of such an interaction is determined by the consumption of wine, which not only imposes a certain thematic framework, but also requires the participants’ mutual adaptation, the social value of drinking can be treated as one aspect of the possible civilising effects of wine.