Abusive Winegeek Syndrome (AWS)

"Max Hauser" schrieb :

no hostility intended, but your point is?

What I really like about that page is the Google ads thrown up.

I wonder how many punters would be in the mood for buying wine, or corporate wine tasting, after that story?

[SNIP]

The point that I got was, that if I piss-off the sommelier, do NOT follow him down to the sub-cellar to taste ANY Sherry! :-)

Now, off to find my Amontillado...

Hunt

"Jens Jensen" in news:dedn24$30k$ snipped-for-privacy@news.BelWue.DE...

Sorry, from the question I may have expressed it poorly. I hope that this will do better!

I was talking to a particular sommelier about an established phenomenon, in the United States, of brash or heavy-handed wine connoisseurs who (though perhaps truly knowledgeable) like to deliberately put down sommeliers, clash egos with them, etc. I have witnessed this myself. One technique of doing so in the past was for the customer to spuriously declare bottles "bad" and demand that the house replace them. My questions to restaurant wine people about their work have brought up these points repeatedly. This particular sommelier had grown up with wine and was knowledgeable and self-possessed about it, and described his own tactful approaches to that situation, which he said definitely arises with some small minority of customers. I suddenly thought of the arrogant wine collector in Poe's story, and asked the sommelier if he knew it. He did not, so I dug up that link to forward. And copied this newsgroup also, in case of interest.

If you can envision a competent retail wine professional whose job requires dealing with little indignities from the occasional arrogant customer, you might see why that sommelier resonated with Poe's story.

-- Max

You might know the sommelier in my last posting, Hunt, as he's local to you.

If interested, please email me at the inferable address in the header. (The first address for you that I tried after some research has bounced.)

-- Max

You know, I freely admit to not being able to tell sherry from Amontillado!

LOL, Bravo!! But I think even Tomassi can tell Vouvray from Muscadet! :)

There used to be a Hemingway contest in the IHT with similarly hilarious results.

The continuity dept has a brief question:

On 23 Aug 2005 11:03:23 -0700, "DaleW" said: [] ] Here I knocked off the neck of a bottle which I drew from a long row of ] its fellows that lay upon the mould.

Had you a sabre handy? Would this not have alarmed the astute Lipton?

Did no one slice up lips on this jagged cup?

[] ] I broke and reached him a flagon of Lynch-Bages. He emptied it at a

You certainly found his weak spot with that. Lucky cellar placement or inhuman cunning?

[] ] In pace requiescat! ]

Careful: well pickled Lipton may be sufficiently proofed against spoilage to interest the next generation of Egyptologists!

-E

Outstanding, Dale. My nominee for the 2005 Piet Beertema Prize (if any). (Beertema was the Netherlands Internet pioneer who posted the forged newsgroup message from the Kremlin,1 April 1984, the so-called kremvax episode. He later was knighted, though not I think for that.)

"Emery Davis"in news: snipped-for-privacy@address.com:

Yes yes yes. Moderns always raise that point about the original story. Poe was a bit of a hustler and did not hesitate to make up details that sounded cool. People may have commonly opened bottles the quick way without even a sword, but Poe would not necessarily have known that. Also, you can pour wine into yourself from a bottle held on high without risking cuts -- it would be a flourish worthy of the story, too.

Max,

I think that your post was clear, at least to me. It also caused me to pause and reflect on how I may have treated the cellar-masters, sommeliers, wine- stewards in the past. As I always try to learn from them and utilize their expertise, especially if I am not familiar with the chef's preperations. We usually have great fun together, with possibly only one local exception.

Hunt

[SNIP]

Now I know why he missed his dinner with me in PHX! Just Another Brick in the Wall.

Hunt

You know, this last method might well be worse than those little plastic " tasting cups," that some wine tastings offer - pouring into the mouth from on high. Where's the Riedel?!?!?!?

Hunt

Well Max, that is one interperatation of "The Cask of the Amontillado".

As with many of Poe's works, you never know if the problem was real or just in protaganists mind.

Fortunato thinks that he is with a friend and has no idea what is going on...there might have never been a slight except in the mind of his tormentor.

The slight might just be the fantasies of a disturbed mind.

"Steve" in news:deiei7$h9m$ snipped-for-privacy@news01.intel.com: | ... | As with many of Poe's works, you never know if the problem | was real or just in protaganists mind. Fortunato thinks that he | is with a friend and has no idea what is going on...there might | have never been a slight except in the mind of his tormentor. | | The slight might just be the fantasies of a disturbed mind.

Very good point, thanks. Some of Poe's characters are pretty explicitly disturbed.

Just in case it remains even slightly unclear to anyone, the contemporary sommeliers I've referred to in this thread are very good people whom most knowledgeable wine enthusiasts would respect and value. The complaint related here concerns not differences of opinion or information or taste, let alone fantasy; but rather the occasional customers who are rude and disrespectful, browbeating sommeliers by choice, or habit, rather from any real cause. Of course, the situation of bad sommeliers does come up -- as mentioned later here, and in recent private mail to me. A different topic.