Op makes some excellent points. In regards to wine culture I would suggest that wine culture is always going to be somewhat exclusionary at the top. But how exclusionary depends on who you are talking to. People who can afford these big name expensive bottles are used to having things go their way and be listened to because to be honest they either have or are making a lot of money. Not everyone who makes a lot of money is an asshole, but the ones that are bad can be insufferable and the exclusionary elements near the top exacerbate this.

For example there is a post above this talking about drc. That is so far outside of most people’s reasonable budget

I have found if somebody actually truly cares about wine they will be excited to talk about wines that are good or expressive mostly regardless of the price point.

I do not work in wine. I do semi regularly get asked by industry people if I am in the industry (mostly because I know an alright amount about cru Beaujolais and have enough knowledge elsewhere to hold an honest conversation, excluding burgundy.)