Wine as membership

Of all the paradoxes that exist in wine, one in particular continues to tickle. In a world becoming more casual by the app, with a population apparently deserting the good and the great for the casual and the deconstructed, the ritual of wine connoisseurship is becoming more popular, instead of fading into the boneyard of high-culture customs alongside marble carvings and fresco paintings. WSET schools are spreading like IKEAs, prospective Masters of Wine are signing up in droves, and the culture of wine tastings and dinners (such as the –...