Wine Snobs

Facebook... along with pretty much everybody I know, knows I love wine, so my sidebar ads are often wine themed. Ads for things ranging from the Corkcicle- the icicle shaped wine chiller, to Wine Bottle Glasses (found at fab.com, hint hint), to Hobnob wines. So tonight, when I was creeping on Facebook, a sidebar ad made me giggle a little and reminded me of a post I’ve been meaning to write for a while now.

The ad was for Bordeaux wine that exclaimed: "Like Bordeaux if you are a real wine connoisseur. All wine connoisseurs like Bordeaux wine. Everybody knows that!"

WINE SOB ALERT!!!!

At the very beginning of my wine adventure, I was under the impression that my sister, Betsy, and her husband, Walt, were slightly snobbish when it came to wine. I can admit that I was wrong. Just because they do not like the same wines that I do, does not make them snobs. It makes them people who know what kind of wine they like. I also know that they are willing to try new wines.

My first true encounter with a wine snob came when I attended The Big Grape event in Grand Island with Jenna… I wrote about it a few posts ago. It was toward the end of our visit, we had tried most of the wines that we wanted and plopped down at an open table to chat and regroup. An older lady sat down at the table with us and we struck up a conversation when Jenna noticed and commented on the neat little bag she was holding.

(It ended up being a clear plastic bag with handles made to keep wine cold when you transported it. We hauled ‘glass’ it to the table where she got it and claimed ones for ourselves a little later in the evening.)

We chatted about some of the wines we had tried and made recommendations when she asked if we had tried a chocolate flavored wine from the same table that had the cool little bags. I said that I had and I had liked it, that it had tasted like tootsie pops and was WAY better than other chocolate wines I had tried. She made a nasty face at my opinion. She was almost physically upset that I actually liked it and soon got up and left our company. I was a little surprised… as was Jenna. We laughed about it a little but looking back, I am a little confused.

Most of the fun of wine tastings is trying new things. That’s why Jessi and I are able to drink drier reds now… because we kept trying things that we didn’t like in the beginning. Don’t be a wine snob. If you don’t try wines that don’t have a French name, or are the wrong color, or are too “cheap,” you could be missing out on your new favorite wine.