Drinking wine with non-wine geeks

WINE TALK
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I don’t quite get the dilemma. Why can’t you just tell her what the things cost, and she can either be willing to buy them or decide it’s more expensive than she wants to pay? “I’m glad you liked those wines. They cost roughly $X. If you want to buy any, I can show you where to find them. And of course, I’m happy to open good bottles of mine when the two of us have dinner together.”

Plus, if she’s buying gifts for her girlfriend’s family, I don’t see why there would be any expectation you pay the cost of them. “I’m happy to share good wines with you when we are together, but if you’re giving gifts to your girlfriend’s family, you should probably get those yourself. I can give you links of where to find them.”

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22

I stopped trying to talk wine with non wine folks who I don’t know for the same reason I don’t talk religion or politics with folks I don’t know. It usually is frustrating for all involved. No one wants to be told about their bad taste.
Including me!

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23

Happens all the time. I find many seem to like the new oak or fruit forward wines. The good side of all of this is more for us!

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Because the second rule of wine club is you don’t talk about the price of wine to non-wine club members

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Speaking of converted the unwashed…

I have found, somewhat to my dismay, that on the path to being a wine geek, that some people immediately from be introduced to wine geekery into being wine critics.

One day, a newbie, and the next week, only being able to say why wines fall short.

Some stay that way.

Happily, most who fall into our bottomless pit keep the joyful part. :wine_glass:

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26

In a prior professional incarnation I was occasionally called upon to represent the firm (a securities firm in the 1990s, so you know money is no object) on a few business junkets to important clients. Well, one of these resulted in the following car crash of a dinner at a fantastic (now closed) restaurant on the west coast.

It’s a table of at least 10. Things start off reasonably, with a reasonable but high quality CA Merlot and Chard. Then the real client (ie the actual hedge fund principal) asks, loud enough that I can hear him on the other side of the table (ie too loud to be denied or deflected) that he has always wanted to try a very special wine on the list. I have not seen the list (it’s not my show) but I know what this is going to be.

Yep. It’s Petrus. Of course it is. Circle gets the square.

Now I don’t begrudge this guy wanting the firm to pay for his Petrus: he has put a lot more money into our firm every week than this whole meal will cost. Does he share? Of course not. Maybe with the folks near him, but no 1983 Petrus makes its way to me. That’s also ok, it’s a big table, it’s not my show, it’s not like I deserve it.

At some point the intern - Harvard junior, if memory serves - decides that the wine list is open for all. He also has no idea what he is doing because before I can prevent it - and I would have, had I been aware this was happening before the bottle appeared - there is 1963 Lafite at the table. For a lot of money. I get to taste that for science. Science tastes bad.

Things seem to settle down until dessert, when someone - I don’t know who - orders an early 80s Yquem. That is awesome. However, our salesman, not used to Sauternes, loudly announces that it is “shit.” “I’ll take it off your hands,” I say.

Now the kicker is that the meal costs I think around $8000 (mid 90s money) of which the bar tab is over $5000. The salesman is shocked at the tab - having done nothing to prevent the ridiculous excess - and tells me and other guys from our firm that he has no intention of tipping. We quietly but VERY firmly tell him he will pay a proper tip, not only because the wait staff was exemplary, but also because someone else from the firm might want to attend this restaurant again in the future. After much fussing, and some sotto voce threats we made of bodily harm, he finally agrees.

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Going to town with a bunch of Wall Street Bros in the 90s is probably not what the OP meant with “non-wine geeks”. But great story nonetheless :smiley:

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The heady days of big lumber.

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29

Yeah good story

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Wall Street bros indeed. When upset by his own mismanagement his knee jerk reaction is to make it up by taking it out of labor.

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31

To be fair to the bros: the salesman was really the least bro of the bunch of us, more a guy from modest circumstances who got lucky and was waaay out of his social depth at that fancy a place. And the rest of us made sure things were done right.
I was reluctant to add this coda because anyone who ever worked on Wall Street will immediately know the firm by this detail: at the end of the quarter it was the habit of the CEO to get a report on the top 10 expense account items submitted to the firm. You did not want to be on this list. The salesman, let’s call him Joe Smith, found himself on the list, which required some sort of penance : I think he had to pay some of the expense out of his own pocket if memory serves. According to more senior folks I was acquainted with, when the list came out the CEO, puzzled and annoyed, said “And who is…. (Consults sheet) … Joe Smith?”

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32

I’ve found when it comes to sharing wine with people who are not interested in the hobby, the best way to impress them is with sweet or fortified wine.

There are obviously exceptions, but the majority of the drinking public, at least in America, prefers sweeter beverages. Their favorite wine is probably something close Meiomi. Instead of telling them that sweet wine is bad and they should instead try something that, to them, taste like sand juice, give them a sweet wine that is actually good. Multiple times now I have given people who are not into wine something like a Spatlese Riesling, a high quality Moscato, or Sherry and they have loved it. Riesling also pairs really well with non-pretentious food, which is a plus for converting potential wine lovers.

Meet them on their terms, instead of forcing them onto yours. I bet that they’ll be much more keen to listen to your nerdy wine talk if they’re drinking something they find delicious.

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33

I find it odd and disturbing that my friends seem to think “low alcohol/high acid” is a criticism rather than the compliment that I intend.

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34

This. Of course I want to be diplomatic, the first 4 bottles as I said were a gift and I don’t want her to feel that she owes me something for them. The problem is that non-wine geeks don’t get the sense that they are expensive. I did politely allude to the fact that Champagne is expensive and I have limited amounts of the stuff, but I basically told her I wasn’t carrying 12 heavy bottles of wine with me on the train in my luggage and she wasn’t appreciating the logistics involved. That settled the matter.

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I too liked the 2016 Phelan Segur [St Estephe] but have yet to open my only bottle of the 2018. I hear that there have been some winemaking changes - new consultants etc. - at this old property, but the 13.5% abv medium bodied blend here feels quite classic to me. Over the decades this has always been a wine that was inconsistently distributed in the places I lived - they have had their own commercialization strategy I think - so perhaps the last year I bought before this must have been the 2003. This one makes up for that long gap, with lots of depth, and a bit more acid/brightness to go with the frame. I thought the oak still needs to round out more, but I’d expect this to improve. On the first night, it needed roast lamb to really taste great, but after 24 hours open, it was fine all by itself. For now, I’d give this a B+ but I expect it to keep developing. Doubt the earthy classic profile would appeal to non oenophiles. Although not a classified growth, ownership has generally positioned themselves ‘ambitiously’, so it costs more than one might assume.

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American leg of lamb (fresh) roasted with mustard/rosemary/lavender with tarragon potatoes and then broccolini finished in the pan sauces.

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There is so much grade inflation these days when B+ is a Phelan grade.

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imo usually it s hopeless. Most non wine geeks prefer : the more lush, the more fruity, the less astringent - the better.
My wife got a ( cheap) German rose wine as a present (“it s so good”) which we opened the other day - just to try.
We decided after the very first sip to use it for cooking only - sour-sweet, candy like nose, bäähh, aweful.

38

agree. I used to sneer quietly because my mom kept a jug of Gallo Hearty Burgundy under the kitchen sink near the Raid and other such items, and enjoyed it for a week. Was her enjoyment less than mine with a grand cru Burgundy—nope.

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39

One of my former partners at my first law firm once told me that my biggest mistake was ever drinking a wine that cost more than $5 (this was a while ago). If I only had $5 wines, I would enjoy them and never know any better. But, by drinking more expensive wines, I could not go back and simply enjoy the $5 wines.

Over time, at various wine tastings I did at the firm for summer associates, etc., I probably ruined him also.

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Brilliant. Perhaps the best wine put down I have ever heard.

Reminds me of the old Oscar Wilde conversation after somebody said something witty. Wilde said, “I wish I had thought of that”

His friend said, “Don’t worry Oscar, you will”.

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