firedude,
you must be from a wine country, like cali or even posh eastern l.i..
where is b'mode?
your advice is sound , so long as the wine "flight" isn't from a crappy-local-vineyard-wine-wanna-be areas, like nj or ny state.
every year i see (and have been guilty of) people buying wine from a local vineyard at a festival (sponsored by the vineyard) at full retail prices. i'm talking 8 to 15 dollars a bottle, not too bad, but for stuff not far from what my neighbor makes from wine store bought grapes. should be 5 bucks a bottle, just to save both faces.
seperately: there are local traditions and regional practices that will affect consumption of wine. in my neighborhood, italian americans drink chilled red wines, especially the deeper bodied reds like chianti. there is a debate over why it is that way. some say that in order to make poorly made wine taste better, chill it. the other reasoning is that wine cellars are cool, so room temp is normally in the low 50's, or slightly chilled.
so ya gotta trust your sommelier, understand the local peculiarities, or at least be wary of the sales pitch.