Wine snobbery

[Guinness]

I like the fruit of the vine…and I’m in a wine club that delivers monthly. I’m by no means a snob or a connoisseur (yup needed to look up the spelling), I just like what I like. In fact my favourite Red costs £6.99 from Tesco, which being the tightwad that I am, I usually buy when it’s on offer.

I don’t care if it’s peachy, earthy, is best with fish, meat, KFC, smells of the Dordogne or is pressed by barefoot Spanish women clacking castanets doing the flamenco.

Tonight I’ve opened a Sauvignon from the wine club described as…. ’grassy, citrus and mineral’ with an aroma of ‘grass, lime and mineral’ (description and smell pretty much the same..I guess the sommelier employed by my wine club doesn’t have a large vocabulary)

Anyhoo…I pay a monthly sum and the vintners send me 12 mixed bottles..including two of these particular bottles of grass, lime and rock tasting Sauvignon that would normally cost £17.50 each…and…..for my palate it’s drain cleaner!

So…genuine question..who makes the valuation on a bottle of wine? Who decides that my £7 red ain’t as good as the £17 white?

[dotti34]

Guiness, does the price of a wine mean that it is superior if it costs a lot - I don't think so. There are wine snobs who think they sound so well-educated on the subject when they rave on and make comments like you have quoted. If I wanted to consume grass I would go out on the lawn, there's plenty there.

From a personal point-of-view I do not like red wine - absolutely hate it, and can't understand anyone enjoying this. However, I do like sweet, white, Moscato - which most wine snobs would turn their nose up at, throwing up their hands in horror - but do I care what others think, no! I have what I enjoy not what someone else says is 'earthy, grassy, with a touch of this or that'. Don't mind some other white wines but the sweeter the better.

So, with regard to your question, I haven't a clue as to who decides on the valuation of a bottle of wine, just pour yourself a glass of what you like and enjoy.

By the way, I absolutely detest beer....oops! I bet that brings a comment or two.

[Less]

Originally Posted by dotti34

just pour yourself a glass of what you like and enjoy.

By the way, I absolutely detest beer....oops! I bet that brings a comment or two.

You put the cart before the horse there and it deserves repeating,

Originally Posted by dotti34

just pour yourself a glass of what you like and enjoy.

Whether it's beer, w(h)ine, spirit or that stuff from the tap enjoy, ignore all naysayers and 'experts'.

[cashman]

to me who decides is dickheads, to whom money aint an option, i dont drink much at all due to medical rubbish these days, but wine is the only thing i have an odd glass of.myself i prefer white wine i buy chardonnay for us the missus and i love it and we get the cheapest from tesco which is £3-99 and we love it.

[monkey hanger]

whats a good wine is the one you like the taste of yourself and nothing else. if it happens to be from aldi or some poncy london shop for ten times the price its no or should not make the difference to how it suits you or not. same with food. not a foody as i only eat to live and no way i,d pay a near fortune for an artists squiggle on a plate with a mouthful of food on it just because it was made in some television chefs restaurant.

[monkey hanger]

Originally Posted by dotti34

By the way, I absolutely detest beer....oops! I bet that brings a comment or two.

join the club. one of the reasons i stopped drinking was the difficulty in buying dark mild beer without searching the county for it. you could actually add beer to the snob list where many beer drinkers big up those small craft beer manufacturers where the product they produce may be very similar to a mass produced one. there is a limit anyone can do with the ingrediants of both wine and beer.

[monkey hanger]

Originally Posted by Guinness

I

So…genuine question..who makes the valuation on a bottle of wine? Who decides that my £7 red ain’t as good as the £17 white?

waitrose, booths and marks and spencer.

[Less]

More years ago than I care to remember,
the ship I was on went to Bordeaux on a show the flag type visit, while we were there a trip was arranged for the younger sailors to visit the top wine making Chateau of the region.
The owner of the vineyard showed us around and then took us to the wine tasting room.
He explained that the wine we were tasting was an immature Bordeaux not quite fit yet for drinking so we should roll it around our tongues and spit it into the buckets provided.
At this point, the Petty Officer in charge of our party stepped forward and reminded us this was a 'good will' visit and we represented the Royal Navy, spitting he said, was rude anyone that does is on a charge.
We enjoyed that red wine and all the buckets were a lot drier than we were at the finish.

(The owner kindly sent up extra bottles as he didn't realise we had a bit of a thirst that day).

The Place Looked Something Like This, but the passing years and shrinking brain cells have fuzzed the image somewhat!

[Margaret Pilkington]

Less that is a lovely picture....and I really liked the story that goes with it.
Now onto Wine Snobbery.
We only ever had wine in our house at Christmas.
The children in the family got what was termed a ‘damp glass’....this was a small amount of wine topped up with water.
We Never asked what sort of wine it was...some of us drank it....some of us asked for squash instead....and one rascally boy tipped his into the guts of the piano(mother wondered why the keys were sticking)

For myself, I have no love of red wine...it is, in my world, only suitable for cooking with...and then not so much.
I can drink some white wines....but they have to be sweet....a Moscato, or there was a lovely German sweet wine that Wetherspoons sold...that was alright too.

I do not know who come up with the descriptions of the posh wines, but I think in the main, they are phooey.....and phoney too.
If someone tells you that a wine tastes of something and you believe them...then that is what you will taste.
That said.....I could not care less about their opinions....if I am having a glass of something, it has to be because it is what I like...rather than some written codswallop that is meant to make those who can taste those things feel superior.
Wine is about enjoyment, celebration...not snobbery.

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by Less

At this point, the Petty Officer in charge of our party stepped forward and reminded us this was a 'good will' visit and we represented the Royal Navy, spitting he said, was rude anyone that does is on a charge.

Just gotta love military discipline & devotion to duty!

[Margaret Pilkington]

It turned out well that day, Son.
Dry buckets all round..... sore heads next day?

[cashman]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

Less that is a lovely picture....and I really liked the story that goes with it.
Now onto Wine Snobbery.
We only ever had wine in our house at Christmas.
The children in the family got what was termed a ‘damp glass’....this was a small amount of wine topped up with water.
We Never asked what sort of wine it was...some of us drank it....some of us asked for squash instead....and one rascally boy tipped his into the guts of the piano(mother wondered why the keys were sticking)

For myself, I have no love of red wine...it is, in my world, only suitable for cooking with...and then not so much.
I can drink some white wines....but they have to be sweet....a Moscato, or there was a lovely German sweet wine that Wetherspoons sold...that was alright too.

I do not know who come up with the descriptions of the posh wines, but I think in the main, they are phooey.....and phoney too.
If someone tells you that a wine tastes of something and you believe them...then that is what you will taste.
That said.....I could not care less about their opinions....if I am having a glass of something, it has to be because it is what I like...rather than some written codswallop that is meant to make those who can taste those things feel superior.
Wine is about enjoyment, celebration...not snobbery.

its snobbery to the dickheads in my view.

[DaveinGermany]

Originally Posted by monkey hanger

difficulty in buying dark mild beer without searching the county for it.

Mate you're 10 minutes into the dark side of England (Yorkingshire), head west & you'll find true deliverance & light in Lancashire, they've got a little brewer known as "Thwaites", I'd say their dark mild is quite an acceptable brew.

[Less]

The definition of a good wine drinker?

someone on finishing his first says, "God, that was awful", as he holds his glass out for more!

[DaveinGermany]

Here you go, wine snobbery at its best