A hearty riposte to Phillip Adams
Huon Hooke in Opinions Become a member to view this article
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The Phillip Adams article in question. Huon Hooke
I’ve been a great fan of writer and broadcaster Phillip Adams for many years, enjoying his eloquence and erudition, his dulcet tones and interviewing style on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live especially. But his bizarre rant against wine in a recent Weekend Australian Magazine (October 5-6) begs for a hearty riposte.
Headlined “Put a cork in it” with the write-off “There’s nothing worse than a wine snob”, this “whine about wine” got my dander up.
Why do the words ‘wine’ and ‘snob’ appear together so often—as though one word can’t help but be followed by the other? Together they form a cliché that is way over-used.Adams is a confessed ‘virtual teetotaller’, who doesn’t understand why anyone would be interested in wine, much less the super-expensive stuff. “Wine snobbery is the snootiest and most expensive of snobberies,” he sneers.
Like just about every wine lover I know, I also abhor wine snobs. Mercifully, there aren’t that many of them about.
Why do the words ‘wine’ and ‘snob’ appear together so often—as though one word can’t help but be followed by the other? Together they form a cliché that is way over-used.
But dear Phillip… what on earth got into a man like you, who comes across as the arch-champion of tolerance, to voice such intolerant views?
You are a lover of artifacts, collector of ancient objets d’art, and a student of ancient history. Would I pooh-pooh your interests, even if I thought them tedious? (Which I don’t, incidentally.)
Phillip, you have always shown yourself to be an appreciator of beauty, in art and in nature, but it doesn’t seem to have occurred to you that some people see beauty in flavour and aroma, in what they eat and drink. Wine and food … wine IS a food. There is beauty and fascination in smells and tastes, and people throughout the course of history have appreciated this.
You mention alcoholism and how you can’t work out how people become alcoholics when you find alcohol so uninteresting. It’s not the alcohol that appeals to wine lovers: for a wine lover, alcohol is incidental.
You are a country dweller, farmer and nature lover: you seem to have ignored the fact that wine is a link with nature, with the soil and the elements. How sap in the trunk of a vine becomes a bewitching nectar, and how the multitude of viticultural and winemaking decisions can result in such an amazing range of wine styles, is part of what true wine-lovers find so intriguing.
I guess it’s too late to make peace over a glass of champagne?
Brilliant reply, Huon. I await Phillip’s response and hope he feels be day joins you for that glass of bubbly.
There is nothing quite as pseudointellectual as pontification on a subject of which you have no qualifications or knowledge. Well done, Huon, skewered him in an entirely appropriate manner.
brilliant Riposte , I think Phillip is the snob here , how can a person pooh-pooh a an item of with so much history and flavour and charm . 8000 years ?
Delicious rebuttal.
Re P Adams – well done, Huon! Just because we do not share the passions of others is no reason to “pooh pooh” them!
Well said Huon, thank you for being an articulate & ardent defender of all things us wine snobs hold dear.