(Gasp) Pretentious Wine Behavior You Have Observed

WINE TALK
21

Now THAT is a strange and unfortunate tale. Did you decide on whether to laugh or cry?

I haven’t met a whole lot of pretension among the people I know. Sure, people are opinionated, but not usually disparaging unless it is well-earned. I’m thinking, that like your story, Chris, true pretension requires a certain amount of stupidity or ignorance to reach a high level.

22

From a central booth in a Yelp 2.5 star suburban restaurant, a glass emerges into the light. Several swirls later, most of the restaurant is treated to an explanation of the wine’s legs. Thank you. Please enjoy your $18 glass of the Prisoner.

1 Like
23

Tuesday this week:

Couple roll into the tasting room. They decide on the Featured Wines list - 5 wines - and begin tasting. RRV PN to start. Fine. Next up is Bedrock Vineyard Zin. Husband flips out when he realizes the Zin is going into the same glass he just tasted PN from. Demands that each selection gets its own glass for both he and his wife. Request accommodated. Spends the remainder of the tasting going on about his 5,000 bottle cellar, how long he’s been a wine aficionado, and how much he knows about wine.

Bottles sold? Zero.

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[cheers.gif] flirtysmile [highfive.gif] [thankyou.gif] [thumbs-up.gif] [welldone.gif] [winner.gif]

25

I stood in a wine shop.
A customer walked in and said I want a bottle of cabernet.
The wine shop guy pick out a bottle of cabernet savignon for him.
The customer said I dont drink blends.

26

Not sure who your target is, the wine searcher article itself, SQN, or the thread about the article about SQN. My opinion is they are all correct. I have had three mind blowing SQN reds, none very recent in vintage but one of them I retried in 2015 and it had evolved but was still unfathomably deep; two 100 pointers that were undrinkable for me; and one that cannot be found for under $1000 that was merely OK. As for my pretentious experiences, the only two I can think of are, people who say things about a wine that are factually untrue and get angry when you contradict them (usually they’re trying to impress their date when they act this way), and second, probably me on many occasions, when I am around people who care about wine and there are multiple interesting bottles I get so excited that I cannot stop talking about the wines. Seriously. Partly loneliness I am sure, no adults besides me at home for 15 years. I have no idea what I sound like but if someone taped me I’d probably kill myself and then kill them. But I do know one positive thing, I not only accept being contradicted, I invite it, it’s how I learn. The people I drink with all know more about some aspects of wine than I. And the wine I learn the most from at any given event is never the one I would have expected. But my opinion expressing must sometimes sound blowhard.

27

See the More Saturday Retail Funnies multipage thread in Wine Pimps. Similar hilarious true stories from ITB people. Usually the author tries gently to correct the customer then gives up.

28

Lee, your post reminded me of a tasting many years ago at the Four Seasons in Philly.

I have no recollection of theme, but I do distinctly remember that Hubert Trimbach was there pouring a number of Trimbach’s, including a Pinot Gris that my wife literally detested. The look on Hubert’s face as he watched the look on my wife’s face as she tried the wine was priceless - almost like something you’d see in a horror movie :wink:

29

On a different thread last month I related the story of the platinum blonde at the next table who was loudly regaling her date (and most of the restaurant) with her level of wine experience and snobbery. Then she proudly and loudly ordered Caymus 40 to go with her fish.

In a shop a woman was instructing her husband about wine. All of the best wines were from “The Chateaux Region.”

30

Fils?

31

Actually, it’s “Furries”. On another board, Lew goes by “POLECAT69”. I salute his openness. [cheers.gif]

32

Some people have lives the rest of us can only dream about!

33

True, frank. There are hundreds of bottles of SQN Next of Kyn, but Galena Cellars’ Cherry Cerise is the real “unicorn wine”.

34

Would you be willing to sit down with a police sketch artist? I think I can help identify this person.

35

George, you’d have to kill them and then kill yourself. I thought you were a lawyer! neener

36

Something I posted in another thread a few years ago:

Many years ago I was working as the floor manager and wine buyer (and sometimes waiter) for a small restaurant in Ketchum, Idaho. I approach the customer who is looking over the wine list and ask him if he’d like to order wine. The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Customer: “Yes, can you recommend a white wine?”
Me: “Certainly. With what you’ve ordered you might want to consider a white Burgundy.”
Customer: “Burgundy’s red.”
Me: “Yes, much of it is, but there’s also white Burgundy, generally from chardonnay grapes; it can be fantastic and . . . .”
Customer: “Burgundy’s red.”
Me: (to myself) You’re a jackass, but you’re the customer and have the right to remain ignorant if you so choose. I then proceeded to recommend another white wine.

He lost the opportunity to learn something, and as I recall I believe I was still well tipped and got a good story out of the deal. I got the better end of it.

37

So true - I was recently pouring some Finger Lakes Rieslings at an event - and a couple came up to me and asked me if I had ever tasted a certain Riesling from an unnamed Minnesota winery. They went on and on about how it was the best Riesling they had ever tasted (even though it was made with California grapes shipped frozen to the winery). When I asked them how they liked the Finger Lakes Rieslings - they commented that they all were “bitter” and “sour” and Riesling is supposed to be sweet.

38

OK, in a small independent wine shop in Brussels.
The owner managed to drop into conversation in the 1st 5 mins browsing that he was a regular judge on the wine show circuit. Fair enough, he might be wanting to impress, intimidate or was just proud. I then ask about how long to cellar a particular bottle of white burgundy on his shelf. “At 10-12C: about a decade, but at 16-18C about 6 months”. Ok still not too bad, if a little provocative. However rather ruined by his shop being low-mid 20s C when we had that conversation. rolleyes

…and NO! I wasn’t there with an electronic thermometer neener

39

I don’t know that SQN itself has done anything to earn the title, but otherwise, yes.

40

Actually, my signature line used to be “Italian Bikes & French Wine”. But then it got clipped and I don’t know why. It says 32 character limit, so I guess that is the reason. But I see many signature lines that are much longer, some even having decent-sized wine lists in the sig line. Serious question: why is that? Anyone know?