Their first step was to discuss what a sub-culture really is. According the merriam-webster.com online dictionary a sub-culture is defined as:
"an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society."Their second step was to discuss the perceptions they already had about what wine enthusiasts were like. For the most part, the students felt that wine lovers were predominately white, upper-middle class, college educated, cat owners!
Once we had some preconceived notions to work with, we saddled up and took a visit to the San Antonio Winery in Los Angeles, CA. There the students were given a tour of the facilities, told about the process of making wine, and given a history of the Italian family that opened the winery almost 100 years ago. I gave the students a brief lecture about the process of wine tasting and sent them to the tasting bar to mingle with the winos and try tasting wine for themselves. As a supplemental assignment, students were also encouraged to watch Sideways, a comedy about a die hard wine enthusiast.
So now the final product is at hand. Were the students right? Are wine lovers just white, yuppie snobs? Do these folks really constitute their own unique sub culture? Or were the students pleasantly suprised to find out they are just another crowd of drunks? Stay tuned...their papers are due here at this blog on August 20, 2008.
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