The answer to that is a resounding, yes. All of the time. Any time you are in retail and deal with people you are going to deal with the 5% that are a**holes, too.
Off the top of my head, the worst pretentious behavior was at the now closed but really nice Cyrus in Healdsburg. The blow hard at the table next to us was extolling his virtues to the woman across from him. Who was either working for him or his wife because otherwise they would have left the table or told him to get bent. He orders the wine pairing, but wants to discuss it first. Being in that Cyrus was in wine country and also California to his surprise and dismay, they were very Sonoma centric. To which he makes it clear to anyone within ear-shot that he was very knowledgeable when it comes to wine. And, that it is very clear, that California doesn’t know what to do with Pinot Noir. And it isn’t very good with Chardonnay, either.
So, the Somm/wine director whatever, says if you don’t like the wine we can find something to suit you. We’ll try to make you happy etc… Well, they might as well tried moving the entire restaurant to France because NOTHING they poured was fit for consumption. Nothing. He send all but maybe one of the wines back. He particularly hated the Pinot that they “shouldn’t be serving”. Anyway, they found a few things that he could tolerate but he rode the staff like a rented mule. And that caused problems for other patrons. He did not limit his pretension to the wine staff because he had also “eaten all around the world”.
I was pissed off and I didn’t even have to sit with the tool. I’m a Francophile when it comes to wine and I thought, actually I knew, he was wrong and, well, stupid. I wanted to let him know he was being a prick but my wife said I can’t do that anymore to people in public that I don’t know.
By and large, American wine buffs buy labels and even the most open-minded, experienced and down-to-earth wine geeks are still quite removed from their European counterparts.
Someone walking around a wine party with a bottle in hand, pouring tastes from the bottle, when the vast majority of the wines are put out for people to pour their own tastes. Not only does the pourer indicate that it’s his bottle of wine, with a lengthy discussion of his interactions with the winery, but he also mentions that it’s a bottle that Robert Parker buys for his own cellar.
That’s happened twice actually. The thread in question was for a birthday or other similar important occasion, and a limit of $500 was set for one bottle (I think). The other thread was mine, and when I mentioned I bought 2 bottles to try (a 2003 Henri Gouges and a 1997 Potel CdlR) I remember some comments from one particular member that those were bad vintages, and he went on to tell me that “Burgundy is not California”. A handful of PM’s came telling me to shrug off what was said… and I did. Turns out both bottles were very nice, enough so that I searched out more of the same ('97 Potel CdlR), or a better year from the same vineyard ('02 Ponsot CdlR), or producer ('93 Henry Gouges).
Reminds me of the guy walking around a trade tasting with a Les Impitoyables suspended around his neck and carrying an open bottle of Abreu Thorevilos.
i get the same.