Oops I Did It Again - Alfert's Breakage Thread - Join In, Post Your Best

WINE TALK
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I’m sitting here this evening entering 2 cases worth of bottles into CellarTracker and hoping I don’t knock any over and break them. I haven’t been around long enough to break any bottles but I’m sure many of you have. What are your bottle breakage stories?

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I saw a post not too long ago where someone dropped a DRC (maybe La Tache). Managed to stay cool-headed enough to take a photo too!

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Eh that was some random unnamed photo.

I’ve never dropped one. I mostly worry about scuffing the label because these days that drops a wine value by 10% at least. rolleyes

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You look like you’re around mid-60’s to 72 and haven’t yet dropped any bottles?
Must have the hand of a surgeon. [cheers.gif]

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Oh that’s not me in my avatar; I am far younger and slightly less grizzled! That’s writer and noted wine aficionado Jim Harrison enjoying a bottle of Chateau Thivin. He is best known for his novellas (most notably “Legends of the Fall”) and poetry but also wrote extensively on food and wine. Here’s a primer on his wine writing for the uninitiated:

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82 Salon. :frowning:

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Not a bottle, but my close friend accidentally knocked over my glass of Screagle with his elbow. I give him shit about it whenever I can.

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Back when I was working at Havana there was a delivery of a bunch of wines imported by Jorge Ordonez in those bottles that had super-deep punts (similar to PYCM). I dropped a bottle from about 6 ft, it landed on the punt, bounced off the concrete floor, and came up with only a small triangle of glass missing from the punt.

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The 1974 BV Private Reserve many, many years ago. Dropped on to a concrete floor at a wine locker. Incredible smell (aroma?). Dropped a bottle of Turley on another concrete floor at a different wine locker, no problem. Got to love those Turley bottles.

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Not much of a difference between dropping a bottle, and opening a corked bottle. Two nights ago, a corked bottle of 1998 Monfortino.

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A 1996 Lafite. The floor a the best fragrance.

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Nothing of any importance dropped, but I did have a bottle neck/ bottle punt collision in a double deep racking that took out a St I Seven Springs bottle.

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I caused a 2014 Lafaurie Peyraguey to roll off the top of a rack and hit the floor in my cellar. In a few minutes you wouldn’t believe how incredibly great it smelled in there, coconut, tropical fruit, lemon curd and more, it was just stunning. I took a few minutes just to savor it but I wouldn’t recommend that as a normal route for enjoying fine wine. Thought I cleaned it up ok but apparently not. About a year later when I was hauling bottles out there were a whole bunch with dried on Sauternes and, because the bottle had fallen from such a height, lots of tiny shards of glass glued on to the exterior of said bottles which repeatedly had me washing off bloody hands and going for more bandaids every time I picked one up.

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I had a somm who wasn’t paying close attention pour a 1995 Maya into a glass of 82 Mouton (thankfully there was only a small sip left).

I also had a waiter drop and shatter a bottle of Quilceda Creek I brought. The restaurant replaced it with a SQN, so that was an upgrade.

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I brought home a bunch of wines someone packed up for me. Loaded up my hand truck with 4 cases with one of those grocery store 6 packs on top. Going up my walkway guiding the dolly with my right hand and holding the 6 pack steady with my left I saw one of the bottles start sliding sideways then flip over the side and onto the cement. Unexpected, and nothing I could do as I watched it happen. They used to make those things sturdy, but this had very low sides and no internal bottle support. Probably fine when full, but not with 5 bottles. There was more of the same wine, so I was just a little miffed I didn’t notice the design flaw of that piece of crap cardboard thing.

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Broke a bottle of Caymus Special Select at the top of my cabinet in the bulk area. Rained purple juice all over my SQN bottles and of course my only bottle of 2001 Harlan which has now a pink label. Missed all the cheap stuff.

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1958 Cantina Mascarello. A birthyear wine. I had it in what I thought was a safe place but it fell from the slot. Incredible aromas.

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2 weeks ago, for the first time ever, I dropped and broke a bottle in my wine room while unpacking some recent shipments/moving things around the racks to make room. It was 2015 a Carlisle Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley.

Glass and red wine all over the floor. Was a very tedious cleanup, especially because of the way my racking is installed.

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1989 Pinon Vouvray Moelleux. One instance where you’d love to smell TCA, but sadly not.

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Dropped many but never broken one. I wanted a slate tile floor in our first cellar, my wife talked me into cork tiling. Best decision ever.

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