The article critically examines the state of modern culture, which is characterized by the subordination of all aspects of life to “total management”, in other words, their transformation into a variety of business enterprise. Today this fate has befallen not only any productive human activity, but also free time, including such traditionally idle practices as, for example, drinking wine. The culture of wine consumption in modern society is considered in this article as a symbol or symptom whose interpretation should lead to the development of such a social ontology that would allow to overcome the boundaries of “total management” and rehabilitate those forms of experience that are today considered to be marginal at best.