Hello!
Any 20’s 30’s wine geeks in Dallas? Where is everyone? Is there any regular meetup?
Thanks!
Don’t minimize the advantages of tasting with oldsters who have deep cellars.
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I’ve been trying to get an offline group going but it’s been a slow starter.
Haha you have a point there. I’m not against meeting older people, just thought it would be easier to have healthy conversations with passionate wine lovers in my age group.
Hey Mikko! Thanks for the reply. If you need any help organizing, I would be glad to help!
Doubling down on this ageist thing, are you? I’ll have to report you to Todd. I think he’s probably twice your age, so beware. 
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I taste with people quite a bit older than me at my offsite cellar and I really love it. Not only are they great and generous wine mentors, but I really enjoy hanging out with them. Prior to this, I wouldn’t have though it likely to make friends with people old enough to be my parents (and beyond), but wine has a great ability to bring people from different walks/stages of life (to an extent) together.
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I am old enough to be the parent of a few folks I drink wine with. Sometimes I have to send them to their rooms.
Thanks for sharing this! That’s amazing to hear
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Right?
I can think of several berserkers in my area over two decades older that if they invited me I’d feel like I totally scored and be so appreciative.
(Hint Howard hint) 
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I thought the biggest problem is that all old people want the wine tasting to start at 5 PM, and then they go to bed at 8:45 PM. 
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Blue Plate Wine Group!
I thought that was why you taste with older folks, half empty bottles for your nightcap.
What a sad post.
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How so?
How is it sad you ask?
What exactly do you feel is unhealthy about anyone sharing their best bottles? Why do you “hate” a “culture” of sharing?
I can understand that, but only to an extent. Wines in the $20-$30 range get abundantly discussed and drunk by berserkers. And people start their wine journeys at different points in their lives. So age does not necessarily correlate to wine experience, much less to wine experience across all regions.
But do you really think this board is a likely place to meet with people at the Yellowtail/Meiomi stage of their wine evolution? Do you think anyone at that stage is a “passionate wine lover”? Or are you just throwing out arguments that you should know don’t stand up to scrutiny to try to score points against John? (John who did nothing but give you good advice that you threw back in his face with innuendo about “healthy conversations” and age gaps.)
Up to that post, we didn’t know you were under 25. We just knew you were in your 20s or 30s. I can’t say I’m surprised though.
That closing was entirely uncalled for. John did nothing to deserve any scorn, let alone public scorn, from you.
This is your first thread on WB. People are more than willing to give you advice. You can get questions answered here that there is no other way to reasonably get a response for. But you really need to check the attitude and try to be a little more respectful to people who tried to help you when they could have just ignored you.
Thanks for the response.
I did not say this. I think it is unhealthy to expect people to share their bottles. People want to share wines? Amazing, we are in it for a great night! I may have come across to be close-minded but I just hated the idea of looking for older people in hopes that they would share great bottles. John calling me an ageist for just wanting to find a group in my age range? even when I said I’m not against it? That was really baffling.
I agree with you on that and I was wrong to assume more age implies more wine experience. Thank you for this.
Now I know it is not the place for that and yes, I certainly think you can like yellowtail or meiomi as a passionate wine lover either from experience or the lack of it. Is it so wrong to disagree? After all, John called me names and wanted to bring in the admin to punish me. I didn’t appreciate that.
I wasn’t disclosing my age.
I agree. This was definitely unnecessary.
For your last point, I understand you are defending him and strongly believe John deserves my respect. But wouldn’t you agree that as a mere human, it is difficult to respect someone who doesn’t treat you with respect? And I’m sure you are not trying to say John treated me with respect.
That was a dramatic improvement Sam. Clearly you understood some of the issues and I appreciate that.
Let me address some outstanding points.
Nobody is going to share their bottles that doesn’t want to. This will be a little bit of oversharing on my part but I’ll give you a personal perspective as someone older than you who is still likely at or below the median age around here.
After I broke up with my ex (one of many such stories during the pandemic) I have tons of bottles that I don’t open because I don’t want to drink them alone. I’m not talking unicorns (though I have a few) because I started late (due to living in the wrong place for collecting wine for many years). When I have friends over, I always open something. I’m sure they love getting free booze. And I love the opportunity to open the bottles and sharing the experience with them. I moved to DC relatively recently and none of my closer DC friends are winos though. So, imagine my joy at finding someone who actually wants to talk about what’s in the glass.
And it doesn’t have to be a one way street. Maybe they’ll bring something interesting one day (my friends certainly don’t). And interesting doesn’t have to mean expensive. My favorite rosé (2021 Bedrock Ode to Lulu) is, at most, $25. And if I had never tasted G D Vajra Claré JC Nebbiolo (~$20), and someone had brought it along, I’d have gone head over heels. There are also tons of amazing Rias Baixas Albariños to be had at very accessible price points. Same with Rieslings. And when was the last time someone showed up with a Txakoli? And even though I’ve tried to try at least one wine from most wine producing countries (and thanks to the Ancient Wine Guys I’m doing great in that regard), there are many many wines a younger person could bring that would likely be new to me.
Another story. The other day a friend of mine got a wrong number call from an old lady who apparently only has one nephew in the world. She was lonely and crying. They talked. Imagine if that lady had a full wine cellar. How happy would she be to share her bottles for some company? How can the cost of that wine be compared to that happiness? Who’s really getting the better part of that exchange? Wine is almost meant to be shared. You can drink it alone but it is way better when shared.
But that also reminds me of another problem with your argument. Not everyone older is rich. Most aren’t. They may not have any super expensive or rare bottles at all. Would that change your viewpoint?
So, your mistake, I believe, was limiting the age range to begin with. And then using words like “healthy” to describe your reasons for doing so when John pointed out the mistake.
And this takes me to what I believe you might have misunderstood:
You see, when you said that you’re “not against meeting older people [but] just thought it would be easier to have healthy conversations with passionate wine lovers in [your] age group,” the question that immediately arose was, why would it not be just as easy to have healthy conversations with the older people? What is it that you might feel is likely to make them unhealthy? There is an innuendo there that didn’t sit well with me either though I chose another path to respond at the time.
Maybe now you can see why John could have legitimately thought you were doubling down on ageism. And, if you can see it, then you can understand that he wasn’t being disrespectful. He was merely letting you know that that sort of innuendo-laden ageism can be very hurtful, that he thought you were the one being disrespectful.
Also, anyone who’s been around here knows that when John mentioned reporting you to Todd, he was likely joking (especially with an emoji after it), because Todd, while likely ancient by your standards, is not likely to ban you for something like this. At most we all get a lecture.
So I’m not only defending John (who is an NYC lawyer and very capable of defending himself), I’m trying to get you to understand where this thread went sideways so that we (especially you) can all start over with better footing.
Everyone likes having new people around. We want you to be here. Trust me.
Getting back to more standard discussion:
That’s a bit of a semantic play because in my mind a passionate wine lover should have some experience. And they would quickly learn that those aren’t really wines of place. They’d be better described as grape cocktails. And it’s fine to like grape cocktails (even if those aren’t especially good, to each their own). But they don’t give anything interesting to talk about. Those are wines that strive for consistency. If you’ve have one bottle you’ve had them all.
The wines that are worth talking about are mostly the ones that transmit the vintage, the wines that show exceptional work from a grower or winemaker to transcend the vintage, the wines that show different interpretations of the same or very similar terroirs, the wines that break new ground in some way, be it quality, winemaking innovation, new terroirs, rediscovering and saving old vineyards or old regional techniques, or manage to produce traditional or outstanding results in the face of climate change (for example, any quality dry farmed 2021 Sonoma Zin is likely to be an eye opener).
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Guilliermo, you are a patient and gracious person. Thank you.
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I don’t think there was anything wrong with the OPs initial post. That all being said, I think one of the nice things about wine is that it brings together people from very different backgrounds and life experiences. I’ve been to probably 10 big wine events in the last 2 years and there’s been a big range of ages of people ranging from 20s to 80s. In many cases the older people were more passionate. They generally certainly had better cellars. If you think younger people don’t have good cellars, though, you’d be wrong.
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