Sometimes I hear from my friends that wine connoisseurs are pretentious snobs. Where does this reputation come from? I am certainly not and traveling through wine regions (exclusively in Europe though) and meeting different people, from wine makers to wine enthusiasts, I have never come across condescending on snobbery attitude.
If you drink widely enough you will run into these people.
Overall I think the attitude comes from traditional attitudes concerning class. Unfortunately there are plenty of people that seem to lack awareness about perpetuating these attitudes. Some people enjoy having knowledge of subjects to hold above others. Most of us can just slow down and demonstrate to people who lack wine knowledge about some piece of it they do not understand. You might make a wine geek buddy in doing so.
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Itâs all a matter of the audience youâre with - many âwine connoisseursâ or those in the wine biz âspeak the same languageâ among each other, but these same words come across quite differently to those who donât share the same passion.
The same is true with art, music, even food . . .
Iâm sure others will be able to express this much more eloquently than I can.
Cheers
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Thereâs a wide range of reasons but one reason is unfortunately a lot of people tie wine with elitism which totally exists. There is a good chunk of people that prioritize the collecting of expensive/rare wines which creates an impression that enjoyment is tied to price or status rather than personal preference. Some media and Hollywood, in some ways, reinforces this idea.
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3 of you are for sure. Maybe more.
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Iâm an uneducated high school drop out from west Texas-I guess youâd say Iâm an aspiring snob
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Title says it all; post of the year!! If you have to ask. Lol.
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Itâs a good point. In many cases itâs just perceived pretentiousness rather than the actual one.
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âIf you think I am a snob, you should talk to my sommelier â
Old line.
Yes we are. Itâs one of those wonderful irregular English verbs.
I am passionate,
You are a snob,
Donât talk to him about (insert hobby) He is a crashing bore.
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Thatâs exactly what I try to do, given my wine knowledge is still very limited. Maybe I just have been lucky but this what I have experienced myself meeting and drinking with people who have much more knowledge than I do.
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My view: No, I donât believe thatâs the case. Of course, in any field, there are going to be some assholes, jerks, and bullies. However, as with any area of interest, there are also enthusiasts, scholars, researchers, traditionalists, and experts. Additionally, in my opinion, marketing teamsâfacing âmarket pressuresââhave leaned into the idea of portraying âsnobsâ as the enemy of inclusiveness. In reality, by doing so, they are undermining the very essence of what they should be fostering.
4o
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Asking this question on a wine forum isnt the best idea
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I think at times we can be perceived as snobs. Consider that the average bottle of wine that is consumed is something most of us would have little interest in talking about and perhaps less interest in consuming. So because I donât drink wine that average americans consume, does that make me a snob?
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Not at all. But by definition snob a person who respects and likes only people who are of a high social class. This is what I implied, granted English is not by first language 
Perhaps surprisingly (or perhaps not) Malcolm MacLaren came across as a wine snob on this Scottish TV appearance https://youtu.be/91oJzIoj9Lk
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A not unreasonable definition of the base term âsnobâ
However when used as âwine snobâ, you might adapt it to be **a person who respects and likes only prestigious / top name wines **.
However, itâs an expression that I think has wider usage e.g. someone who has their favourite wines / regions and will stubbornly insist their favourites are the âbestâ, irrespective of whatâs in the glass. Wine snobs can thus have remarkably little breadth of experience in tasting / drinking wine.
Even wider might be refusing to even taste a new wine because they assume it is âplonkâ, though in this one, I suspect a lot of us might qualify!
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He doesnât come off as very sober there but very honest. He was a lot more fun in Buffalo Gals.
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Yes, he does. But I think a lot of it to do with the way he delivers his opinion.
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If certain wines are served or only certain wines are available, I wonât drink them. Some will consider that sobbish
Yes
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