TOP 5 TYPES OF WINE SNOBS – How to Handle Them and Avoid Becoming One

Wine Snobs are everywhere in the world of wine. Chances are, if you haven’t run into one yet, you will. It’s important to recognize when someone is a wine snob so you can ignore them or better yet, get something useful from your experience. Also, once you begin your journey with wine, it’s easy to fall into the trap of becoming a snob yourself. Not everyone will be at your level, and it’s important to remember that you once were new to the world of wine, and there are ways to help others gain appreciation for wine, and there are ways to turn people off.

Save yourself from having to go out to the store to get wine:
CALIFORNIA WINE CLUB: Try a Club Membership and Get 2 Extra Bottles in 1st Delivery: CLICK HERE

Types of Wine Snobs:

1. Traditionalist – This wine snob does not like any new fads or unique wine making techniques. We’ve often run into these snobs railing against things like bourbon barrel aged wines, screw caps, and other non-traditional wine things.

2. Linguist – This is the wine snob that is hyper aggressive with how things are pronounced. Wine is an international product, and some snobs harp on how to pronounce sometimes difficult language barrier wine terms. When someone is learning, one way to turn someone off is to intimidate them as being unintelligent because they can’t say a varietal right.

3. Naturalist – These snobs are hyper sensitive to anything in wine making that is unnatural. It doesn’t matter what the research says, they will try to convince you that the only wine that won’t hurt you is organic, pesticide free, sulfate free, etc. Some of their claims may be true, but it crosses the snobbery line when it becomes an obsession.

4. Exclusivist – This type of wine snob likes to tout their high end taste preferences. They will like to belittle people for drinking certain wines that don’t meet their standards. It could be a price point they won’t go under, a rating system they rely on, or they only drink wines of particular vintages.

5. Inquisitor – This type of snob goes WAY to far with the questions. It’s great to ask questions and to get to know the wine you’re drinking, but it can be taken way to far. If you’re at a party, this snob may harp on a million questions about the wine before letting anyone take a sip. Often, their questions aren’t even relevant to the wine.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. KB February 22, 2020 Reply

    Yet asking questions or not liking a particular style doesn’t make someone a snob. The snob is the one calling out the curious and educated

    1. corknjava February 22, 2020 Reply

      That’s true in a lot of cases. It’s mostly about attitude over anything else

  2. Kim M. March 10, 2020 Reply

    My grandma enjoyed her wine very much but was the farthest thing from a wine snob. Unfortunately, she lived in a community that was full of snooty wine drinkers. One year for her birthday my father gave her a subscription to a global wine club where she would receive a new wine from a different region every month. One bottle that she received was a Bordeaux from France that she loved. Her neighbor saw the bottle and insisted that she serve it when she was going to be over for dinner the next week. Grandma wasn’t wasting her good wine on her snobby neighbor. She drank that wine and refilled the bottle with a wine that she purchased from the local QFC grocery store. Her neighbor didn’t even know the difference! That gave grandma a really good laugh!

    1. corknjava March 14, 2020 Reply

      That’s hilarious!

Leave a Reply