It hit me and a friend the other day when we were at an industry tasting. Our wine friends and the people we know are cool. But many wine professionals are not.

For example, the guy at Waiter Rant writes a great POST about how not to look like an idiot when ordering wine, and it’s really detailed. But all this so and so at another blog can do is nit pick a teeny detail to show just how much more knowledgable he is about volatility. Last month, I wrote an article about Ice Wine that was specifically meant to keep the topic naked of wine jargon, only to have commentors assail me on tedious details of Oeschle levels and such shite. Not cool.

Most wine people can be such assholes. There I said it. They’re fucking tedious and boring, making everything so damn complicated in order to sound so goddamned smart. They’re worse than the geeks at a sci-fi convention because they actually SUCK THE FUN out of drinking wine.

(read in geeky voice) Actually, the Ewoks in Episode 6 were originally supposed to be the Wookies of Kashyyyk, but Lucas decided the Ewoks would be more cost effective. It isn’t until Episode 3 that we visit the Wookie homeworld and by then it seemed contrived.

You see what I mean? There’s a point at which geekiness just turns annoying–no matter what you’re talking about. But since wine is a social beverage, it’s always been strange to me that we fetishize it sooooo much in this country. But then we Americans are good at that, aren’t we? Beanie Babies, sports teams, baseball cards, hot sauce–Americans will collect and obsess about anything. We all do it. I collect vintage Almond Roca tins and shark’s teeth; and I can’t remember why….

Last year, my New Year’s goal was to start a blog and stick with it. Over 1.5 million visitors latter, and now I have no choice but to continue posting. Thank you, all of you for constantly kicking me in the ass. And I’m sorry for not always being as diligent about posting as I could be or as thorough. But taking stock this week, in how this blog has been put in the warmer a few times while I must attend to things that actually pay me, I want to set a new goal for 2006.

I want this to be a place for people who truly love the experience of good food and wine and the like. With extra emphasis on the experience. I want to rescue people from the idea that they “don’t have the time” or the money to eat or drink the good life as much as I want to rescue them from the idea that “good food and wine” must be fancy. I don’t give a shit about the wine business. I only care about helping people take a bit more time to give themselves a bit more pleasure. That’s it.

So you’re going to get a lot more of my philosophy this year. I’m going to focus on the tagline I made up just a year ago but haven’t really thought much about til know. Anecdotes for the gourmet proletariat. We, the people, who make our lives about food and drink, but often times can’t afford the very things we hold so dear.

I’ve stolen recipes and techniques from all of the chefs I’ve known. All my wine knowledge comes hard earned, from drinking it, travelling to it, meeting the people who make it. I’ve experienced it. I didn’t take no stinking classes. I’m no fucking tourist. That’s why food critics bug me. So many are nothing more than that, tourists. I have no respect for those who’ve never gotten their hands dirty. I don’t ass-pire to be a food writer; I have other plans. I just want to share what I know. My approach to learning and life is a little bit Thoreau and a little bit Gonzo. I don’t like the guided tour. I don’t like pedagogues. I don’t like the words “should” or “must.”

So this year, I’m going to share a bit more…how to, why to, when to, where to…..You’ll get to meet more of and learn from the people who make up my “gourmet proletarait,” my Proletkult.

Proletkult: a movement in the Soviet Union around 1920 to provide the foundations for a truly proletarian art devoid of bourgeois influence and based on the concepts of constructivism (a way of looking at reality, or at least our knowledge of it, as a value-laden subjective construction rather than a passive acquisition of objective features).

And maybe a few more subscriptions to Wine Spewlator will lapse, and the local butcher will see a few more regulars, and the parking lot of Whole Foods will be a little less crowded, and the world might be a teensy, tiny bit better of a place for it.