The Queen of France almost certainly never said "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", let alone its English mistranslation, ‘Let them eat cake’. Those words were probably put in the mouth of an earlier royal by Jean Jacques Rousseau.

Whatever the truth of the story, it was a great and enduring soundbite: the people who inhabit the palaces have no idea of how the common people live.

I am reminded of this disconnect when I read and sometimes engage in conversations on LinkedIn about the wine industry. If someone from another sector, with no knowledge of wine, were to use this platform to try to imagine how it is bought, sold and consumed, they would be justified in imagining that

a)    Most of it is drunk in restaurants

b)    Which have sommeliers

c)    Wine consumed at home is bought from specialist retailers

d)     Or directly from the winery because, of course, most wine drinkers visit tasting rooms

e)    In either case, the purchaser has been open to a discussion with, and advice from, someone who works there

f)      Rather than scores and medals or social media posts from strangers, for which they have little time

g)    These same purchasers have ‘cellars’

h)    Where they keep wines that will – hopefully - improve over time

i)      They care about matching food and wine

j)      And about where and how the wine was made

None of which is true.

With the exception of very focused consultants like Courtney O'Brien Lorenzo Biscontin and Molly Bossardt , few of the people who write on this - supposedly business-focused platform - talk about the reality of wine distribution and consumption.