To Örebro University

In this paper we argue that, wine professionals’ cultural and social capital is making a distinction of how to understand a “good” combination. The aim of this study was to provide increased understanding of what “good” combinations mean to wine professionals in Sweden. Existing research on food and beverage pairing has in the main concentrated on sensory evaluation, but there is little research on narratives from experienced wine professionals. This study was conducted on qualitative focus group interviews with wine professionals (n=21) with different work experiences in Sweden. A thematic analysis was performed by using a hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and thematic development, by means of Bourdieu’s concept of taste and capitals. The result points to that wine professionals’ distinction is performed through social and cultural capital, not only does it give the understanding of what a good combination is, but also that you actually will learn to like it objectively and subjectively. This is a process of getting access to the culinary field, through the accumulation of gastronomic knowledge. Using Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, this paper contributes to the debate on how to understand socio-cultural taste and taste combinations. Having gastronomic knowledge through cultural and social capital maintains and claims social positions on how to understand “good” combinations. These findings have practical relevance in the training of wine professionals and sommeliers and for explaining the constant development of their social and cultural capital while performing their profession.