This weekend, back to back incidents have given me a little perspective on my effect on my friends in regards to their wine snobbery. Not once, but twice, I had people close to me make comments about Yellowtail and 2-buck chuck. while both of these wines are pure plonk and a hindrance to the credibility of fine wine everywhere, I'm a little concerned that I have created a culture of wine criticism around me. I am a critic of practices of dumb-ing down wine. I have a good palate and recognize good wine in a very broad sense and can easily imagine all real world applications. I recognize a great inexpensive wine,and don't for a second feel that all wine needs to be expensive. That said, yellowtail and shaw are crap because they are a confection and sell a lifestyle, not because of their price. Maybe I need to be a little more diligent about explaining this side of it.