Nearly two weeks ago, wine influencer Pilar Brito took to her Substack to say that the wine industry desperately needs snobs and that “the hyper-accessability trend is bad for the wine industry.” Although grocery store wines like Yellow Tail, Barefoot, and Apothic may steal marginal market share from smaller premium brands, bringing back snobbery will likely do more harm than good. The industry has long been plagued by an air of elitism and gatekeeping that deters casual drinkers from exp...
