Who’s the Wine Snob Anyway?
Sure, we’ve all seen them. Turning their noses up at what they perceive to be merely average or inferior wines, the so-called wine snob is as much of a fixture in wine culture as cork in a bottle. Hey, everyone is entitled to their opinions.  Let’s face it, in many ways the wine enthusiast community almost counts on the wine snob to set an outer boundary for objectivity and reason. The sun rises in the east, it never rains in Southern California, and anything other than a first or second growth Bordeaux simply just won’t do. Okay, fine. To each his own. We know how to deal with all that.
However, I find more and more that snobbery in the wine world comes just as much from those who restrict their wine choices to the “value wine†category as it is known in the industry. On the one hand, varietal wines priced $6 and under represent a solid 50% or better of the American wine buying market. So, it’s really not all that strange to imagine that there would be at least a few people with some strong opinions amongst a group of that massive size. The sun rises in the east, man it pours in California, and that one red wine is good stuff so no need to get anything else. Again, to each his own.
In many cases it’s not so much about an attitude of “more for your money†as it is about tradition and the comfort of knowing what you are getting. Whatever your wine traditions and preferences may be, that’s at least a concept that we can all appreciate, and isn’t that really the point of enjoying wine? Drink what you like, explore whatever new things you want, and if you don’t like a glass of wine you’ve been handed, pass it along. Odds are someone else will enjoy it. Indeed, the sun rises in the east, but no matter what there’s no need to be a wine snob.
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