Worst wines you've had?

I know this isn’t very constructive, but… Got in to K&L Wines and this Moonbuzz Pinot Noir 2015 from Monterey was a lower priced recommend, promptly displayed up front. My wife always complains I only have fancy wines she feels bad about opening and I should have some cheap, everyday ones. This seemed like the ticket.

Literally undrinkable Pinot. Even she who never rejects a wine, spat it out. Wasn’t flawed, just bad. Chemical, over-oaked, hot, burning, thin.

Then I Google this, and get even more confused. 92pts?

What’s wrong with my palate? [cry.gif]

I wouldn’t worry too much about disagreeing with Wilfred Wong’s sales pitch.

But who are the reviewers TP and D?

Was the 92pts from Mr So?

D is Decanter which I normally trust for Bordeaux.

TP is “Tasting Panel” whatever the hell that is.

WW I avoid when shopping on wine.com


Sub $15 is very hard to find quality in California imo. For a little bit more I would recommend Talbott Kali-Hart Pinot Noir. Very fruit forward and easy drinking pinot which is very pleasant. Talbott is under Gallo’s luxury portfolio. Good juice

Llano Sweet Red. Used to keep a bottle at my place. It’s what I opened when I didn’t want to open any more bottles of my wine and wanted people to leave my house. It’s gross.

I have had Cisco Red before, though, but I assumed we were discussing wine made from grapes.

Pinotage

That wouldn’t be his style.

Adam, you should read the reviews quoted on a sales site with caution. There is probably nothing “wrong” with your palate.

For another relatively inexpensive Pinot Noir to try, give Patricia Green Pinot Noir Reserve a test drive. If you enjoy it, your palate is A-OK, IMHO. [cheers.gif]

Could have opened a $40 Metras Fleurie that could be a sub for sewerage…

You have a pallet of what your palate disfavors?

The worst wines I’ve had, not counting flaws in individual bottles like cork taint, have been “natural” wines, like Dettori, Ooka, etc. The list could go on for quite a while, but I’ll leave it there. Carlo Rossi is higher quality. I’d rather have mass produced, generic tasting Pinot Noir any day.

Pinotage is probably second to a lot of those. Awful stuff.

NYS had its share of duds years ago. I believe Bully Hill and Brotherhood were stand outs. Not sure what they taste like now?

Good point. I’ve had some pretty terrible stuff made from hybrid grapes. I still stand by my previous post for absolute worst, though.

Great Wall Chinese red of some sort tasted in 1992

Can’t recall at the moment but I am sure that whatever it was, it was either cat pee sauvignon blanc or gamay.

Agreed. Some of those wines are not worth even trying

nothing sticks out to me as being the worst but I will say that there’s way more bad wine than good wine

That would be a horrible rating. He normally rates everything 93.

Of course! To draw from a large pallette of flavors he favors!

For me the worst would have to be a bottle of Chianti in a fiasco that I drank over the course of five years.

Second worse would probably be a bottle that a friend made in Hungary from some unknown grapes that exploded in the back of the car when we hit Czechoslovakia.

Third would probably be Mer Soleil that I tried at a wine bar and sprayed across the spit bucket trying to get it out of my mouth as quickly as possible.

And fourth would be a bottle of Two Buck Chuck that I’d read about but had never tried because at the time there were no Trader Joe’s in New York and grocery stores can’t sell liquor or wine there anyway. So first time I had a chance to try it, I bought a bottle and we took it home to my wife’s parents house. We opened the bottle standing in the kitchen and simultaneously spit it into the sink immediately.

Meiomi Pinot Noir was awful. No varietal character whatsoever, it tasted like chewing tobacco.