Many in the wine industry—certainly importers, but basically everyone, because the Trump Administration’s tariffs touch it all—are facing headwinds they’ve never felt. You may pooh-pooh the notion that the two youngest generations are eschewing wine in favor of pot (or, oddly, RTD cocktails; but there’s evidence that they are); that the World Health Organization and other self-anointed experts have blanket-condemned alcohol as unsafe at any speed (they have); that there’s a glut of mediocre “me-too” wine and far too many acres under vine (both are true and the industry is only reluctantly responding); and modern habits of socializing (mostly online), spending (less), and leisure activities (often excluding alcohol) have permanently changed wine consumption. All true.
That’s why I’m chagrined to see the continued snobbery and just plain bizarre “business offerings” coming from too many places in the industry, including two that are bombarding my Facebook feed.
de Négoce
A purely online outlet, de Négoce has a “wine club-like” business model, with one big rub—it focuses on “fine wine collectors.” Specifically, “Looking for the easiest way to stock a complete home cellar?” Not drinkers, so much, just “cellar people.” As though you can’t just buy wine that you like, and of course, YOU can’t pick it, you have to have it “curated by experts.” That sounds like a museum to me. Now, these folks assert that they buy premium and luxury-label wines, but then strips off their brand labels and puts on its own generic label–a kind of snobbery-in-reverse–is something I find hard to believe that top producers would do. And if they are, I don’t believe they’re doing that with their top bottlings. Why would they? You really gonna put a generic label on, say, an Angelus, a Romanée-Conti, or a Joseph Phelps, and sell it for **20%** of the previous retail price? And trust that an unknown “expert” thinks it’s wonderful?
And granted this is anecdotal, but they seem to have trouble with their fulfillment; here are two comments directly, verbatim, from their Facebook page, neither of which De Negoce responded to:
“I have been ordering from de Negoce for a while now. They have changed the way you pay – you go through Shop pay (?) It was not efficient and I didn’t like going through a third party. I tried to get help on line, but de Negoce has no way that I can find to contact them.”
“I placed an order on 13FEB and it still hasn’t shipped. What’s with that?”
Angie Somm – 玉琪軒
Somehow, I must’ve clicked on the Facebook page of Angie Somm, self-described as a Chinese bilingual Advanced level Sommelier living in the US.
But I didn’t message her, and was surprised when out of nowhere her FB Messenger popped up and asked “Hi David! Please let us know how we can help you.” Before I could answer, and leaving aside the fact that her bot was essentially spying on my Facebook account, it was followed, in bold letters nonetheless, with this disclaimer, “Serious Collectors Only.”
When I responded that, after asking if she “could help,” it was pretty arrogant to follow up in five milliseconds that, well, not really unless I’m a “serious collector”—as opposed to what, an unserious “drinker” who buys only one bottle at a time?—she replied “no arrogance intended (emphasis mine) at all. The phrasing is simply meant to signal that I work primarily with collectors actively purchasing and building cellars.”
Hmm. “Building cellars?” Well, those are typically made of wood, not wine. And I do think that’s still pretty arrogant on its face. So, unless I’m building a cellar, I’m not worth her time or effort, even if I want to buy $10 Gs worth of fine wine, and just not refer to that as “cellaring?”
This is the definition of wine snobbery.
We need more authentic, everyday wine enthusiasts. And fewer de Négoces or Angie Somms.
