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“Ah, this wine has a fruity nose, with the hint of cherry and a whiff of Chocolate and a nice satin finish.” That my friend screams out - ‘Wine Snob’. This action could lead to some embarrassing questions about your wine knowledge if you in fact are just faking it.

If so, the show might look impressive to anyone slightly interested in your actions, but what if someone asks you what your are doing while performing this snobbish ritual? Will you have an answer or just be embarrassed?

To dodge the embarrassment bullet, realize that checking the nose of the wine and testing it on your palette is for days long gone. When presented a bottle of wine at your table in a restaurant, for your sake, please don’t ever perform that ritual. Even if the Sommelier presents the bottle and has an expectant look on his face, just don’t fall into the trap. Do not and I mean do not fall into it.

If you find yourself unable to resist the behavior, just understand you are likely to expose the wine server and yourself to an embarrassing and awkward moment in time. So just fight the urge and let the server pour the wine and then slip off to more important duties.

A popular trend presently with wine aficionados is to sip some wine, expose it to their palette and then gently swallow it. And then come forth with some extremely flowery language describing how it has a satin finish, or hint of Blackberry and Chocolate or some other crazy sounding mixture. When you hear someone do this, you know you are most likely in the presence of some overly self important wine snob. Unless you happen to be at a tasting held by a wine club.

Quasi wine aficionados are a dime a dozen and very easy to spot. It’s truly amazing to watch a wine drinker start spouting off flowery language attempting to describe which most often is just an average wine. And many times less than and average wine it turns out.

Best practice these days require that you select a wine that you like and enjoy. Nothing more and nothing less. It’s important to realize that your taste is just as good and important as that of anyone else. After all. isn’t the object of drinking wine to enjoy it and be sociable? Do you care what fruity smell it might have or whether some candy can be associated with it. I doubt it.

A money saving tip: When dining out, call the restaurant ahead of time and ask if you can bring your own wine and if the restaurant can just charge corkage. This is a policy that a lot of restaurants have or are familiar with and are willing to provide you. It can mean the difference between buying a $12 bottle at a store and paying $25 to $40 for the same wine at the restaurant.

Whatever you do, just enjoy drinking your wine. It will turn out to be a much more pleasant and enjoyable experience, than if you try and put on the dog and try and impress people with knowledge you may not possess.

Tags: Wine //