Most Disappointing Wine You Cellared

[Robert.A.Jr]

@ky1em!ttskus

All of the 07 CdP I bought.

This. By far. Usseglio one of the worst examples.

And I used to love this region.

[Randall_McFarlane]

@MitchTallan

top honorable mention goes to '00 Clarendon Hills Kangarilla Grenache that Parker went orgasmic over. I bought nearly a case of it.
http://www.westcoastwine.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=36728

I forgot about that–wretched stuff!

[Tom_Moore]

25+ years ago when my average cost per bottle was maybe $5, I tasted a Silverado reserve cab at the original Wine Club in Orange County and caved, bought 1 bottle for $25! It was amazing that day and held it for maybe 10 years, saving it for that “special” day. When that day arrived…what a dud!
I can’t remember who I drank it with but I hyped it up beforehand and to say I was embarrassed is an understatement.

[Barry_Paul_Price]

@Tom Moore

25+ years ago when my average cost per bottle was maybe $5, I tasted a Silverado reserve cab at the original Wine Club in Orange County and caved, bought 1 bottle for $25! It was amazing that day and held it for maybe 10 years, saving it for that “special” day. When that day arrived…what a dud!
I can’t remember who I drank it with but I hyped it up beforehand and to say I was embarrassed is an understatement.

I learned to never hype, due to these sorts of experiences. lol. Unfortunately, my wife LOVES to hype things… wines, restaurants, movies… “the best wine you’ll EVER have” is a hard thing to live up to.

[edwardmilstein]

a case of 76 Petrus I bought around 86. Half the case was undrinkable and the rest bad.

[Max_K]

Not sure this is quite what you were thinking, but after sampling '88 Ramonet Batard-Montrachet at an auction tasting, I hunted high and low until I found a single bottle on the West Coast. Had it shipped overnight to Chicago, and then hand-carried back to Canada. Held onto it in a cellar for a few years for a special occasion, only to have it be completely dead on opening. Saddest wine day of my life (other than a profoundly corked '86 Lafite).

[Marcus_Dean]

1990 Faiveley Beze,
so much wasted expectation, had 2 bottles and both were faulty duds

[Larry_Link]

Great topic, and I have 2 answers:

1. Individual wine, Ponsot CdlR from 97 and 98, bought a mixed case, 6 each of them around 2001. Let them rest for 6-8 years, and found them to be cloudy, unstable messes. I still have 4 left. Alas the last one popped was the worst so far, so cellar time does not appear to be the answer.

2. Behrens and Hitchcock wines. I bought into the Parker hype, joined the list and for 3 years purchased practically everything they pumped out; Cabs, Syrahs, plus many weird blends with cute names and labels. Once I started drinking them, some were good, but most were flawed by VA and that dreaded purple plastic cork.

[AAgrawal]

@Arv R

@Andrew L.

@D@vid Bu3ker

1998 Vieux Donjon (every bottle, from multiple sources, has been dead since the mid-2000s)

Every bottle I’ve ever had of this has also been dead.

Wow. That’s weird, I probably had a half case of the 98 VD from release up to maybe age 10 or so and they were all superb. They were pretty much always better than the 98 Vieux Telegraphe or Pegau when side by side too.

Maybe there were different bottling runs or shipping/container vendors.

I had three bottles in my cellar, and the first in 2014 was very good. Interestingly enough, I just pulled the 2nd bottle into my “Drink Now” rack. I’ll have to get to it soon.

I’ve had a couple bad disappointments. Most recently, a 2001 Yquem which was corked. But also a good number of white burgundy that was pre-moxed (including Verset, Girardin), and a case of Behrens & Hitchcock spoiled by those terrible synthetic corks.

[Dennis_Atick]

@alan weinberg

Most Gaunoux Burgs.

+1
No there, there.

[Arv_R]

@Larry Link

Great topic, and I have 2 answers:

1. Individual wine, Ponsot CdlR from 97 and 98, bought a mixed case, 6 each of them around 2001. Let them rest for 6-8 years, and found them to be cloudy, unstable messes. I still have 4 left. Alas the last one popped was the worst so far, so cellar time does not appear to be the answer.

2. Behrens and Hitchcock wines. I bought into the Parker hype, joined the list and for 3 years purchased practically everything they pumped out; Cabs, Syrahs, plus many weird blends with cute names and labels. Once I started drinking them, some were good, but most were flawed by VA and that dreaded purple plastic cork.

I guess I should feel happy/lucky that I was never able to wait on any B&H wines, never having many, and just drank them up as they fell into my clutches. And loved them young.

Truly the Elizabeth Taylors of the wine world!

[GregT]

I think too many people mistake BIG fruit, BIG alcohol or BIG tannin as a guarantee a wine can by aged for a long time. In my very uninformed opinion, I feel like balance is the most important element along with those others plus acidity.

Barry - most people wouldn’t include alcohol as something that will help a wine age. In fact, if it’s too hot to start with, it’s a safe bet that it’s going to be worse with time. As far as big fruit, that’s why you drink it young.

It’s still kind of a mystery as to what will age and what won’t, but I learned a long time ago that when Parker said something needed fifty years, you had a fifty fifty chance of him being right.

For me, the worst has been the 1998 S. Rhones. I generally like CdP younger anyway, and I’ve learned not to keep most of them. Same thing happened with the 2000s and 2001s. When the 2007s came out, I was nonplussed that certain critics liked those more than the bracketing years, which seemed much more drinkable to me.

[Markus_S]

@Leonard Taylor

… I recall RP saying that some of them would need 50 years to come around. Today they hardly resemble PS.

[etomasi]

@Arv R

@Larry Link

Great topic, and I have 2 answers:

1. Individual wine, Ponsot CdlR from 97 and 98, bought a mixed case, 6 each of them around 2001. Let them rest for 6-8 years, and found them to be cloudy, unstable messes. I still have 4 left. Alas the last one popped was the worst so far, so cellar time does not appear to be the answer.

2. Behrens and Hitchcock wines. I bought into the Parker hype, joined the list and for 3 years purchased practically everything they pumped out; Cabs, Syrahs, plus many weird blends with cute names and labels. Once I started drinking them, some were good, but most were flawed by VA and that dreaded purple plastic cork.

I guess I should feel happy/lucky that I was never able to wait on any B&H wines, never having many, and just drank them up as they fell into my clutches. And loved them young.

Truly the Elizabeth Taylors of the wine world!

wow, way to be an ass Arv.

[Pat_Martin]

Most of the 2001 chateauneuf that I’ve cellared. So good back in the day, but most have not shown much good in a long while.

[Warren_Taranow]

'98 Beaucastels went from something really nice to soupy barbecue sauce a few years ago. It seemed to me the change was sudden, as though someone had thrown a switch.

[Chris_Seiber]

Antinori Solaia has been a wine that seemed dazzling at release, but matured into a very ordinary claret. The 2000 and 2001 that I thought were treasures of my cellar tasted like decent $40 Bordeaux when I opened them in the last year.

[Barry_Paul_Price]

@Chris Seiber

Antinori Solaia has been a wine that seemed dazzling at release, but matured into a very ordinary claret. The 2000 and 2001 that I thought were treasures of my cellar tasted like decent $40 Bordeaux when I opened them in the last year.

I wonder how long you’d have to cellar them for them to taste like $20 blends?



Kidding. Nothing worse than a wine disappointment. Especially when it’s one you prized.

[jcoley3]

@Jeremy C

Most Gaunoux burgs

Which Gaunoux?

Right?

Most Morey Burgs…

Most Gros Burgs…

[Ian_Sutton]

@Marcus Dean

@Ian Sutton

Ignoring faulty esp. corked wines.

Probably Cullen Cab/Merlot from 1998 and 1999. Not the most disappointing wines in purely comparative terms, but very high expectations were thoroughly dashed.

Also an honorary mention to 1990 Nervi Gattinara Molsino - very underwhelming, but I’m hoping the new owners are doing a better job.

Wow, that makes me feel better, when I sold my cellar in Sydney before moving back to New Zealand I had a few of Vanja Cullens wines and I was quite bummed out to sell them, maybe I dodged a bullet

Sounds like our expectations were similar, of a questing artisan producer with prime vineyard sites, making wines with eagerly anticipated potential. FWIW I found the 2001 vintage much better (though an Auswine forum recently wrote they didn’t like those), but prices have risen such that I don’t anticipate there being the value in this label I expected. Under £30 when I bought mine, so not financially the worst hit - the 2001s very much worth that IMO.

Their Chardonnay is their wine I still hold in high regard, not at all cheap, but very complex.