I don't mean to sound patronising but my take on this is simply that he's a good salesman who levered up the personal relationship he's established with you
In all my years of shopping with them, he has only ever recommended me a wine on 1 or 2 occasions because I explicitly asked. I get discounts and tastings regularly. They have warned me from buying things more times then they recommend things. They are not trying to “sell” me anything.
I'm not saying the recommendations are bad, but... it's a shop! Of course they're trying to sell you something!
(Making good recommendations may well be more profitable than making bad recommendations, because if they make bad recommendations you'll stop coming back. But they absolutely are trying to sell you something).
