This is just a random viticultural pet peeve…I’m sure we’ve all got those friends/relatives/colleagues that “love wine” and to show everyone just how much, they get together with other like-minded folks, usually at the new hot restaurant, and “do some serious damage” to the establishment’s cellar. They order the 19 so and so single-vineyard cult bla bla bla, and then a mag of ultra-rare mailing list only, owner’s 4 year old daughter cuvee`, followed by an imperial of a vintage, all Pinot Meunier grower Champagne just disgorged after 26 years by the arthritic fingers of the winemaker’s great grandfather who is rumored to be the grandson of the big guy (Bacchus in this case) himself, and then finish the meal with a 3 liter bottle of Chateau d’Yquem that carries the incontrovertible provenance of having been stored in Eva Braun’s underwear drawer for over two months…Now I know what you’re going to say - that this is a pretty clear case of oenophilic “name droppers” who simply like to brag to their wine-loving and non-wine-loving friends alike about all of the great bottles they’ve drunk (or at least say they have), and the money it takes to get the chance to do so. Now THESE people CERTAINLY exist, and in fair numbers too, but I don’t think that that’s the species in question here. In my experience, bragging rights are not what’s being accrued here - these types never miss an opportunity to talk about their 5000 bottle cellars, and that their number is on Peter Michael’s cell phone speed dial. These guys (and most of them are guys) are easy to spot and identify - the car that they drive is often the biggest giveaway…

No, this “overconsumer” is another (though perhaps related) animal. To me, this type is the one that doesn’t really enjoy and love wine, but rather just the IDEA of it. They delight in ratings, rarity for it’s own sake, and the cult of the superlative. They search for “perfection” in every bottle, and in not finding it, order the next one that will surely deliver. These are folks for whom wine is NOT a competitive sport (that’s the hallmark of the “name dropper” crowd) but rather a geeky, “anorak”, “trainspotter”, bottle-on-a-pedastal pursuit that feeds a lustful adulation of what a wine REPRESENTS rather than what a wine IS. These folks
drink wine because they think that that makes them the adult equivalent of “cool”, and the more bottles they drink, the cooler they become. They often drink more wine after the meal than during the course of it, and glibly swap stories about volatile acidity, brix vs. oechsle, and quintals per hectare yields espoused by their favorite celebrity winemaker…

Yes, in the end, were dealing with REAL “wine geeks”, but ones that have become perversely entwined with the “more is better”, unbridled consumerism that has swept through the world of wine in the last 20 or so years. Like it or not, wine is a luxury product that is a bit prone to this sort of trap, but for me, this is the very reason why those that really do love and understand wine to press upon those who just THINK that they do to approach wines like the nearly miraculous FOODS that they are rather than the porno mags that they wish that they were…