Snobbery

An influential wine critic recently wrote:

Sometimes, it seems, that having an opinion about a wine is as important if not more so than having actually tried it. It’s easy to knock a $200 Cabernet for price, or ding a cult Pinot for being Syrah-ish.

I say this having had many occasions where I’ve talked to wine drinkers and after discussing wines, it becomes apparent that we have entirely different impressions.

Most times I ask: “Have you ever tried the wine?” Or “Are we talking about the same wine?”

You’d be amazed by how many times those same people say that, well, no, they haven’t tried it … but they’ve heard.

For now, I will leave to the side the implicit defense of Syrah-ish Pinot and $200 Cult Cabernet (which, given the difficulty of getting a Cult Cab, turns to at least $500 in the secondary market) -- but thank you, Mr. Critic, for implicitly identifying where you stand on that debate.

Instead, look at his response to such criticisms and how that response is used: "Have you tried the wine?" In this context, his response is used to shut up the counterparty, and not to defend the criticized practice. Of course, the circumstances demonstrate how unfair this response is. As the California critic for Wine Spectator, he is able to try thousands of wines a year -- both in his job as an official reviewer, and through the access that job gives him to the wine industry. How likely is it that he has to pay for even a fraction of those wines? Given the prices of California wine (especially the Cult Cabs), he is probably able to put six figures worth of wine in his mouth every year.

Six figures. And he begrudges his counterparty for complaining about the implicit lack of access for Cult Cabs found in their prices. In effect, his response is equivalent to someone of privilege scoffing at those less fortunate because of their lack of privilege.

This is snobbery. A better response would have been to say: "Have you tried the wine? If not, let's try it together and share our thoughts then." Wine should always be about discovery, and even the uninitiated will teach the experienced a thing or two.

Unfortunately, wine is a field that tends to collect snobs, whether it is the privileged few who look down on the uninitiated, or the ignorant who like to puff up their chests by feigning knowledge. By reinforcing the appearance of knowing more about wine than someone else (no matter the actual level of knowledge), one tries to come off as cultured in a way that one is not. In either case, how one treats their knowledge of wine is a great check for arrogance, intellectual thuggery, or insincerity, and gives new meaning to the phrase: In vino veritas.