"Jens Jensen" in ...
>
> no hostility intended, but your point is?
>

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