What Kind of Wine Drinker Are You?

So, I’m guessing that you, the reader of this blog are a wine drinker. And, if you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that over the years, we’ve covered a comprehensive list of topics on this blog. This month I was a little stumped as to what topic I would cover.

Then one of the Green Acres wine team suggested that I write about what type of wine drinker I am. Hmmmm, interesting idea, I thought. What if I didn’t personalise it and wrote in general about the different types of wine drinkers – in a fun way. A good idea? Well, if you’re interested in finding out – read on.

Describing a Wine Drinker

Where does one start? There are many different categories I could dream up. As I said though, I’m going to make them up for this post. I’ll base them on hearsay descriptions. This is not to say that many of us wouldn’t cross-over categories depending on the circumstances.

You could also include geography, age, experience, preferred tastes and such influences involved. However, in the interest of a bit of fun, I’m going to pick 8 casual types that you might recognise.

Categories of a Wine Drinker

The Wine Snob

The one thing that makes a person ‘fit’ into this category would be that they want to appear to be the most authoritative person on wine, in the room. Of course, wine notes and descriptors are the norm, even if nobody else can smell or taste what they’re talking about.

They will spout about wine labels, chateaux and regions they’ve visited and let you know that everyday wines are not worthy.

The one good attribute is that they will spend money on quality bottles of wine. (ahem, a Green Acres favourite)

The Wine Collector

This is an obvious type of wine drinker. It is a person who is focused on their wine cellar and driven more by labels and vintages rather than their palate. Needless to say – their cellar must be the best!

As a result, the wines are only sampled when ready to drink. To me this can be a wasted opportunity to love the wine you’re with and enjoy it with friends. This is not to say that some wines don’t need aging but why not have a little stash of drinking wine on the side – if you get my gist.

Again, with my Green Acres hat on, we love looking after customers like this as they care about their investment in wine. Donal Morris loves sharing his almost infinite knowledge of vintages with collectors.

The Predictable Wine Drinker.

As the name implies – this type of drinker sticks to the same grape, region, country or even label all the time. In fact, they might even restrict their imbibing to the same time of day, each week. You know the type that states, “I only drink red wine on Saturdays with food”.

At a push they might try a different grape from the same region/country but that’s about it. This leads me nicely into the next category, but I really think that this person will gain from the experience of a little experimentation.

The Wine Explorer

This type of drinker is always on the hunt for new experiences. This might be grapes, regions, countries, glasses, temperatures etc. Rarely will they try the same bottle twice (although they may well have a favourite they return to every now and then).

This type cannot pass a wine retailer without popping in to have a look at what different wines they can find. They will always ask their local wine retailer for new options to try-out.

The only downside for this guy is that they will not appreciate a particular style, taste etc as they are constantly experimenting with new tastes, aromas etc.

The It’s Just Wine Drinker

This person is not drinking wine for the enjoyment of it. They are constantly looking for the more inexpensive wine that’ll suffice for their evening drinking and hopefully not produce a hangover. (They don’t realise that it’s not the quality of the wine that produces a hangover – it’s the volume consumed).

In my opinion, wine is to relax and enjoy some time with family and/or friends. If finding an everyday bottle that will suit your needs causes you stress – don’t drink wine. Instead, settle for a consistent taste from a can of beer or a spirit.

The Social Wine Drinker

Now this person has absolutely no appreciation of wine whatsoever. They will accept whatever wine is being poured. They’re objective is to have the craic and be social by getting tipsy. Whether you offer a top Burgundy or a cheap supermarket offering – it’ll be downed in gulps.

I reckon this person is the one that goes straight for the ‘special offers’ section, the only purchase motivation being price. Maybe what they don’t realise is that a lot of the cheap wine can be full of additives that you really don’t want in your system.

The Young Wine Drinker

In fairness I totally understand this category’s preference for cheaper wines. Supermarkets tend to cater for these young millennials and bag-in-box and rosé wines are becoming more popular due to their immediate drinkability. The recent pandemic and drinking outside rules are conducive to this trend, obviously.

Always shares a pic of their wine on Instagram et al.

The older Millennial Wine Drinker

I’d probably put these drinkers close to the ‘explorer’ one above but in this case, the wine would have to be organic or biodynamic. Enjoys pairing wines with trendy and ethnic foods.

These are the people that will drive the wine industry into the future. I welcome them seeking out wines produced sustainably with little or no additives. I just hope that they appreciate the skill and traditions of wine making and get time to enjoy the fun side of drinking it.

What About Me?

So which category do I fit into? Who knows? Maybe, just maybe, I fall into six of the categories, depending where I am and what I’m doing. What about you?

Anyway, thanks for reading this piece, I hope you enjoyed its somewhat tongue-in-cheek descriptions of the various wine drinkers.

“We are all mortal until the first kiss and the second glass of wine.” – Eduardo Galeano

Drink wine and stay safe.      James