I’m all for people mustering some enthusiasm for wine. It is possible however to muster a little too much, as you’ll know if you’ve ever come across a wine bore. I suppose every topic has its share of nerds, and at least with wine, the subject of their passion does taste nice. But that doesn’t make them any the less dull.

They’re usually easy to spot at parties. While everyone else is intent on having a good time, their brows are furrowed. Rather than just drink whatever wine is available, they’re scanning the labels of bottles, checking what percentage of Shiraz or Cabernet each wine contains, and whether the winemaker thinks it is appropriate for the food on offer (although I’ve never seen a label that suggests a wine is good with Pringles and Pretzels). And they ignore the stack of plastic cups, and furtively head for the kitchen to see if they can track down a more suitable vessel for their chosen tipple.

If you find yourself cornered by a wine bore, whatever you do, don’t utter the words, ‘Well they all taste the same to me.’ Not unless you want three hours of one-way traffic about canopy management, micro-oxygenation and the difference between a grosslage and an einzellage. You long to say to these people, ‘Get out more, drink some beer!’ But the truth is it can happen to the best of us…

The ten signs that show you might be turning into a wine bore

1) You make notes on the wines when you’re out for dinner
2) You keep back copies of wine magazines
3) You have a collection of bottle labels (which makes you a vintitulist by the way)
4) You have more than one tie with a wine motif
5) You can recite the 1855 Classification of Bordeaux châteaux
6) You can name all thirteen grapes in Châteauneuf du Pape
7) You insist on correcting people who mispronounce Riesling – (it’s Reece-ling, by the way)
8) You look down your nose at people who only drink Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio
9) You can’t remember your last holiday that wasn’t in a wine region
10) You have more corkscrews than pairs of shoes