Abstract
This paper addresses the principal theoretical issues informing the significance of wine consumption as social practice and, within this, the significance of tourism to wine consumption. While recognizing the work of Mike Hall and others, particularly in developing and applying Bourdieu's theory of distinction, the paper offers an alternative perspective. Drawing on the everyday experiences of serious leisure, the paper argues that distinction is attached to bodily rather than social practices - that people become by doing, rather than doing to become. In the case of wine, the becoming is connected to entry to a social world inhabited exclusively by those knowledgeable about wine. Others - tourists - are allowed access to some elements of this social world, such as drinking wine and visiting vineyards. This access serves only to convince them of how little they know, thus legitimizing the prestige of the full members' of the social world.