Elitist tendencies

Some wine lovers tend to feel part of a cultural elite, opinion leaders in their own building, but lose the sense of things.

Considering oneself better than others and finding justification for this is one of the vices most common to man. In some cases, this attitude can be positive if it has to do with sports, economic competition or a desire to improve one’s life. These are ambitions that can lead to personal and social advancement. When an elitist tendency has more to do with a sectarianism or classism then it is another story because it is not based on a real justification nor does it substantially benefit others. One of the more ridiculous attitudes I have noticed in our world of wine can be summed up in the expression: “tell me what wine to drink and I’ll tell you who you are”. And so you will find people afflicted with “Burgundyitis”, a strange disease that makes people only talk about Burgundy wines or, at most, Pinot Noir wines. They only talk about Burgundy wines because, with what they cost today, drinking them is out of the question.

Then there are those who only drink the so-called “natural” wines in the belief that this way they help in the battle against “global warming” or that against an unjust economic system. While in some small way this may be true, what is more than true is that their efforts have a less than minimal effect on the reality of a global situation where fossil fuels and pesticides are widely used and not only in winegrowing but also in intensive agriculture for the crops that really matter, like wheat, corn, soya and rice. Then there are those who think that a wine that costs less than ten euros cannot be not good and those produced by wine cooperatives are far from anything that has anything to do with “excellence”.  This attitude is widespread among self-declared wine lovers, less so among those who approach wine in a more random way and have difficulty understanding appellations and the variety of wines. In my humble opinion, what all these attitudes, and there are others that are similar, appear to imply is: “I am better than you are because I am more aware and know more and my choices are made based on unquestionable principles”. Such people are thus part of a cultural and philosophical elite, “opinion leaders” preaching from their own personal pulpits.

They seek to make us lose sight of the meaning of things, they divide and isolate wine lovers, creating a clique of experts, high priests of the sacred liquid wine, an arrogant sect that uses its own language and looks down at those they consider amateurs, the less enlightened, at best with some form of pity. In the end all this succeeds in doing is to make wine a difficult, unappealing subject for the majority of consumers. Evidence of this is the fact that while the media is flooded with stories and presentations of food and recipes, there are almost no such programs or columns on wine. Interest in wine has never been so low and if things keep going this way it will only get worse.