fighting WINE SNOB haters

[jamesngalveston]

I will admit, I was never a wine drinker at all,never even bought much except when I was having quest over, and even then I had no idea how to buy one, other then white wines with fish/pork, and a red with wild game are red meat...That was the extend of my wine knowledge.
I had no idea that wine was made from anything other then grapes, and fruit wines were usually boones farm.
Thus after reading and learning to make wine,and learning the ins/outs
compounds,flavors,colors,grape types,wine types, etc.
I starting asking my so called wine conniseur friends about why they drank what they did.
I was suprised at there answers....sure enough everthing the label said, is what they said....a hint of choclate with the morning dew decending on the grass leaving a droplet of fragrant water.....lol
What the label said is what they tasted....go figure.
Now I kinda just dont pay attention to them, and when I do try one of there wines, i try my best to describe what i taste, not what i read.
most of the time, there wines are awful...some not.
But really ..i make my wine for me...if someone likes it..fine, if not, then thats ok also....some like beets, some dont.

 

[BernardSmith]

The best way to bring down the wine snob is through blind tastings. Although there are a few tasting savants out there most of us are average tasters. I have seen many a wine snob brought to their knees in blind tastings when they picked the $10 bottle of wine over the $50 bottle of wine. We like what we like and it may not even be possible for us to describe the wine's characteristics in detail. And that is just fine.

Also as previously said pairing with food is so important to bringing out the best qualities in a wine. I do not particularly enjoy drinking big red wines without having a great meal at the same time. To me they are not meant to be served as a cocktail. Likewise I find Jamie, intense fruit forward wines not to go very well with many foods. These wines I do enjoy drinking without food accompaniment. These are just my own taste idiosyncrasies. Everybody should develop their own preferences and never be embarrassed by it. Wine is meant to be fun, make us happy and love the people around us.

But there is nothing inherently inferior about a wine if that wine is sold for $10 and nothing inherently superior about a wine that is sold for $50. Someone who really knows something about wines can highlight aspects of the flavor and color and aroma of each and can tell you why he or she PREFERS one to the other and why they have such preferences and dis-preferences (you might prefer videos of pratfalls on Youtube to the comedy of Colbert and you may be disinterested in Colbert's humor or in unpacking it) or why one is more interesting than the other. They can share this with you and help you taste and smell and see what they see. The price itself should have no bearing on this. Price may be more related to what the market can bear and how the wine is marketed than anything else... That can certainly be seen in the news story about how the (notorious, IMO ) Koch brothers' other brother was diddled out of millions of dollars for wines that were sold for their counterfeited labels than the contents of the bottles.

 

[sour_grapes]

I will admit, I was never a wine drinker at all,never even bought much except when I was having quest over [Emphasis added]

James, given some of your other posts, I don't know whether this is a wonderful Freudian slip, or just an honest, matter-of-fact statement!

 

[GaDawg]

One of my favorite is:
"It smells like grandmas perfume making love to a rose bush" lol

 

[jamesngalveston]

lol, i meant guest

 

[Elmer]

This was my favorite and caused a coffee spit take!

"a hint of choclate with the morning dew decending on the grass leaving a droplet of fragrant water"

 

[JohnT]

my favorite cam from my brother ...

"This S#@T is good".

 

[sour_grapes]

I went on a wine tasting recently, and the descriptor included something like "scent of rain-washed stones." I told the (very nice young) guy that there was a single word for this scent, namely, petrichor. I explained the etymology, and did allow that it was a neologism, and that it sounded better their way than my way. But it was fun to talk about the blood of the gods while drinking wine at 10 AM.

This got the day off to a high-falutin' start, and our group started (well, okay, mostly I started) pulling out $0.50 words when appropriate, and taking stock of the various tasting notes. At one stop, the pourer gave us an extra glass, and I thanked him for the lagniappe. He looked at me quizzically, so I explained it meant something like "bonus." He stared and said "In what language?" (Don't worry, James, I did give the Cajuns their proper credit! )

 

[spaniel]

Snobs can certainly be frustrating, especially when their low opinion is not based on actual facts/experience.

However, one must also be cognizant that a large share of wine drinkers have never, ever had fruit wine. It really is a whole other drink to many people. I have shown up at a wine tasting party with a bottle of good commercial fruit wine and had it stared at like someone who forgot to put their clothes on before leaving the house in the morning.

Back when all I made was fruit wine, we all thought it was good but after that particular party I bought a bottle for such events. Now that I have vines and make wine, I'm confident nobody would know the difference if they couldn't see the label.

 

[GreginND]

I love to do blind tastings with people who think they can identify any wine. You know the types as you have all talked about them on here. It is quite fun to see them pick out an $8 Spanish Grenache and claim it's a $30 bottle of something from California.

 

[kevinlfifer]

The country club we belong to allows me to bring my own wine for an $8 corking fee. I drop it off at the bar, the wait staff then serves it at your table like it was their inventory. I love to do this at a function or fund-raiser where we have 10 seated at a table. I share it after those who drink wine, they have finished their "by the glass" wine. They almost always ask the staff for "a bottle of that." Sometimes the wait staff doesn't know better and they go off to the bar staff and ask for it. When they come back and announce that that wine is unavailable I step in to save them. I have a blast.

 

[shoebiedoo]

I love to do blind tastings with people who think they can identify any wine. You know the types as you have all talked about them on here. It is quite fun to see them pick out an $8 Spanish Grenache and claim it's a $30 bottle of something from California.

I watched a documentary on becoming a Master Sommolier. It was a really fascinating show. different than the Wannabies we're talking about. I have a brother in-law who is very particular on what he drinks will will quite often open up a $100 bottle of wine. BUT to his credit, I've seen him totally BASH a $50+ bottle and RAVE over a $15 one. That, to me, is totally acceptable. And although he's enjoyed most of what I've made he is not afraid to tell me if one is "CRAP"

 

[kevinlfifer]

I have a friend that always asks for "whats new" translated - Can I have a bottle? She will tell me if it "sucks" or not. I have figured out that "whats new" does not work, because if you give a new wine they still drink it tomorrow, no matter what you tell them. Then she says that wine wasn't very good, then I say it was for Christmas next year, then she says it still wasn't very good. Moral of the story, give no wine before it's time.

 

[shoebiedoo]

AMEN to that Kevin.

 

[dangerdave]

A story...

I keep a small rack of wine at my best friend's house. He and his wife are avid cheap beer drinkers, and refuse to accept that any wine could ever be called "good", so they never touch the stuff. We do have mutual friend's, though, who often stop by his house to pick up a bottle of my wine, since I live farther away. Strange set up, I know.

Case in point: This same best friend's sister-in-law (his wife's sister) is married to Lawrence Funderburke. Some of you may remember him from the Sacramento Kings (1999-2003) and the Chicago Bulls (2004-2005). Regardless, his lackluster NBA career made him a millionaire. Like most rich people, he hoards his money, so my friend and his wife never see a dime. Two years back, during a brief and rare holiday visit to my friend's house, the Funderburkes noticed the rack of my wines. Turns out they are rich wine snobs. My friend passed them a few bottles of my wine, stating that it was produced by a "local award winning vintner". They loved it! My friend says they regularly call back asking for more (for free, of couse), never offering to buy some (which I won't sell), or to contribute a single dime to this vintner's enterprise (which I might consider). These folks, who could afford any wine from anywhere in the world, want mine.

This Xmas, I gave my friend a single bottle of my Rosso Fortissimo to gift to the Funderburkes. He said they raved over the bottle and the label. I'm still waiting to hear if they liked the wine, and if they still want more---for free.

 

[kevinlfifer]

Another semi-amusing story. This a friend who likes my wines. She had one of the few whites I have done and raved. I told her buy a kit I'll make it for you. She did, I did. I require as part of the deal a bottling/labeling dinner. As she left with her 30 bottles (quite a nice lable and bottle presentation) she offered for me to keep a bottle. I told here they're all yours I don't drink white wine.

Two weeks later I got one as a birthday gift. Talk about re-gifting!

 

[Downwards]

I have some sympathy for both sides of this discussion. I say that because I do agree that the best wines are made from grapes. I have been convinced of that by my taste buds, YMMV. So I don't get too upset when folks chuckle a little at the idea of my fruit wines.

On the other hand, I have also been convinced that I can make as good a fruit wine for the table (and have won a gold in the county fair for the county that makes my favorite wines) as most people can afford to buy for table wine. And much much cheaper. And like some of you, I've served a glass of oaked apple to a couple that thought fruit wine was a joke and converted them. They thought it was a white grape wine with "notes of apple". So there. Maybe it's not as complex as some other wines, but that doesn't mean it is low class. I don't always want complex, and I don't always want wine to be the big star at a meal. And sometimes I don't want to spend $15 for a bottle either. Sometimes it's just a matter of scale- I can get a better wine for that price, but usually not 15 times better, lol.

Personally, my biggest pet peeve is the snobbery against anything even slightly sweet whether grape or fruit. Folks act like it's super low class like everything with some sugar is for keeping warm while you sleep in a bush. And some of them don't even realize how much sweetness is present in wines they think are dry just because it's covered up. Drives me nuts..

 

[jswordy]

Come on, though, let's be honest about the definition of "wine snob": Someone who thinks what I've made is rotgut.

I've made dry wines, I've made semi-sweets, and I've made sweet wines, out of fruit and out of grapes and out of fruit-grape blends and out of grape-grape blends. Not all have been great, some may not have even been good, but all have been great experiments and learning processes.

I could make just 3 wines a year and be happy, and am seriously considering adopting that practice once my backlog of ingredients runs out. The stuff my wife and I generally like best is sweet grape-based wines. They are drinker's wines made to stand alone. I like to make my grape wines out of American grapes, not foreign invaders. All that together - sweet, drinker's wine, non-European - brings out the howling snobbery among the effete like nothing else short of a Welch's concord can.

Once, unknown to me until later, a friend grabbed a bottle of apple wine I'd made and took it to a high-class wine and cheese party in the nearby big city. I'd labeled it all up and everything, and she said that bottle was the first drained and people were clamoring for more while other expensive wines were left standing. Who brought it? Was there another bottle available? Where could one buy it? She had herself a time!

I say let the effete snob away and thus remove themselves from considering my wines. More for me!

 

[Downwards]

Hah, that's a great definition!

 

[GaDawg]

Come on, though, let's be honest about the definition of "wine snob": Someone who thinks what I've made is rotgut.

Does that make me a "wine snob" I have made wine I thought was rotgut