Sommelier vs “So megl’iè”

Sommeliers are wine professionals who in Italy and around the world work in restaurants and wine shops or as wine promotors or instructors at wine appreciation courses. They can also be, especially in Italy, wine enthusiasts who want to enhance their knowledge of wine through specific technical training. They are useful and important figures, true ambassadors of quality wine and who inform, teach and bring many people closer to wine. Then there are others, who sometimes dress the same, who are what we call “so megli’iè”, which in the dialect of people living in the Ciociaro area south of Rome roughly translates “I know best”. These people pretend to be sommeliers and some even find work as such in star restaurants. However, they are not people who seek to inform or communicate but rather prefer to act as if they were some kind of demigod who rules over and often comes between the unfortunate client and the wine they want to drink. They impose their own personal preferences without bothering to offer a wine list much less illustrate it. And they have no interest in tastes or pairings. What is important for them is that they are the undisputed judge of what to drink and no one should dare to question their decision. Since “I know best”, they seem to be saying, my views should be savored as pearls of wisdom. And you, poor client, should thank your lucky stars that I was there to keep you from making the wrong choice. This takes place not only at restaurants and wine bars but also at certain wine appreciation courses. And here not only does the same thing happen but, if possible, it is aggravated by a jargon that is often incomprehensible with little to do with accepted technical terms. An avalanche of definitions that, when not debatable or outright wrong, cannot be questioned because “I know best” by right of god or whatever. Forgive me if I seem to be rambling on but recently I have had the misfortune to encounter too many of these “so megl’iè” who were very good at ruining evening at a restaurant and dominating conversation at the table, all too caught up in their self-appointed role. In other words they were real pains in the neck as well as presumptuous jerks.