Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve begun writing a series of posts about the morality and ethics of wine writing over on the UniSG blog (it’s part of the Master’s in Wine Culture program at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Piemdont where I began teaching last year and will be teaching three English-language seminars this year).

Before I continue, I wanted to take a step back and start to formulate a list of “functions of wine writing.” It’s inspired in part by (although not based on) Roman Jakobson’s “functions of language” (which I highly encourage you to read if you’re not familiar with his work).

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. I’m hoping that the wine writing community will help out with expanding it and making it more precise. Please feel free to comment with your suggestions. And thanks in advance for your help with this work in progress!

My list of “functions” is by no means exhaustive or comprehensive. Please help me refine it…

FUNCTIONS OF WINE WRITING

Lyrical

– poetry
– narrative
– music

Figurative

– painting
– pottery
– engraving
– photography

Technical/Educational

– ampelography
– viticulture
– enology

Legislative/Governmental

– appellation regulations
– adulteration/counterfeiting laws
– shipping laws

Descriptive

– labeling
– fact sheets
– tasting notes
– scores/ratings

Commercial

– copywriting
– marketing/promotional materials

Journalistic/Editorial

– guide books
– long-form essays
– monographics
– cartography
– blogging
– micro-blogging
– podcasts

Metatextual/Paratextual

– writing about wine writing