“Wine geek†sounds pejorative, but I don’t mean it as a slur when
I use it in my writings to refer to wine lovers. I consider myself a
wine geek, after all. And geeks of all kinds are considered cool now
anyway.
For me, a wine geek is someone who spends an inordinate amount of
time thinking about and talking about wine. Or reading wine blogs.
(Yeah, I’m talking to you!) We spend a fair portion of our disposable
income on wine; though our average price comfort level depends to a
large degree on how much income we have to spend. A wine geek, in other
words, is not a price snob. We are willing to pay a little more for a
special wine, one that offers extra nuance or complexity, a special terroir. But we relish the inexpensive over-achiever wine as well as the rare, pricey cuvée.
Nor is it a gender-specific reference – there are many notable women
wine geeks, though men do tend to be more obsessive in this way.
We wine geeks stifle a laugh whenever we hear the standard definition
of “moderate drinking†as two glasses a day for men and one for
women. We sometimes plan dinners, even vacations, around wine rather
than the other way around. We remember the name of the wine we enjoyed
at dinner, and very well might know the distributor. We don’t say a
wine is “smooth,†and we don’t automatically dismiss sweet wines
as unworthy.
Wine geeks have many other traits. Here are a few I posted in August 2000 in Dave McIntyre’s WineLine #8, archived on Robin Garr’s WineLovers Page.
You Know You’re a Wine Geek When …
- … Someone asks “How’d you guys meet?” and you say, “At a wine store.”
- … You curse the Founding Fathers for not including “direct shipping” in the Bill of Rights.
- … You swirl your water glass and sniff a plastic cork.
- … You name your pets after wine grapes or winemakers.
- … You believe a wine’s first duty is to be red.
- … You put your recycling out late at night so the neighbors won’t
see how many bottles you have, then snoop in their bins to see what
they’ve been drinking. - … You put your recycling out a day early so all the neighbors can see what expensive wines you opened last weekend.
- …You have 200 or more bottles in your cellar, but keep complaining “There’s nothing to drink!”
Can you think of a few more identifying traits of wine geeks? Tell me in the Comments …
You know you’re a wine geek when instead of telling others about a
fabulous bottle of wine you had, you save some to make them smell, sip
and talk about it themselves!
You know you’re a wine geek when someone tells you they are “taking a
cab” to the party and your response is to ask “Napa”?
… When you refer to winemakers by their first name.
Or importers!