I brought an '07 Marcel Deiss, either the Grasberg or the Burg, to a restaurant. Knocked it off the table and it shattered.
Was only $50, not the end of the world. But I really like the wine, and it was the last one I had, so it was a bit of a bummer.
Not my bottles, but Rudy’s fakes:
And not an accident, but destroyed on purpose. Who knows what they really were?
Never broke a bottle in 20 years of buying wine. But my wine storage place did. Full service outfit. Asked them to deliver 72 bottles to my house. Mostly lower tier Burgs and Tuscans that needed to be drunk. I included precisely one nice bottle and they somehow managed to break that: 2006 Soldera.
Once dropped a bottle of Mollydooker and pretended it was an accident. Unfortunately, there was a backup bottle of Mollydooker available for dinner.
I, too, broke a bottle of Caymus SS (1994 IIRC). I was pulling a cardboard 12-pack from the bulk storage area of a wine cooler we kept in the garage. I had forgotten that I placed a single bottle on top of it. As I had reached up and maneuvered the case, the Caymus rolled off the cardboard box, hit my head, bounced of my head and onto the hood of my wife’s newish car, dented it in two places, then rolled off the front of the car onto the concrete where it broke. The worst part by far was saying “honey, you know your car…?”
Was picking out some wine for dinner last night and and had some bottles sitting on a empty cardboard shipping box. A bottle of Sandlands slid off a shelf and took them all out. Everything made it through except a bottle of 2012 Ultramarine. I watched it hit the cement floor, wait about one second and then rip in half.
I was at Costco and they boxed up a case for me. The guy grabbed the handles of the box to place it in my cart and they ripped clean. Broke 2 bottles of Clinet, a Lynch Bages, and some cheap Prosecco.
They were really helpful with replacing every bottle in my box with a new bottle because it was all the labels were messed up. I asked if I could buy the stained labels for a discount but they wouldn’t go for it. Said they had to destroy them. I assume destroy means some manager got a bunch of nice wine for free.
The very first bottle I bought in Austin in 1968, I dropped at the door of the store and broke a St. Emilion. The store felt sorry for me and gave me another bottle of the same. I gave them a lot of business after that.
Welcome Bill, from another Portlander, too. And greetings to Marshall
Hey Buzz, saw this thread got bumped and it seems the link doesn’t work now. Can you share the photo again?
21’ Prum WS Kab … sigh
Slipped from a shelf ~5 feet up and hit a concrete floor. Consequence of too many bottles piling up in too little space.
I kept some wines in a cooler at a relative’s house. When it got moved, it was placed in a room where the floor tilted. My relatives filled the cooler indiscriminately, and when I opened the door, out rolled a 20-year old Marcarini Brunate, crashing unceremoniously onto the floor. Thankfully, the $5 wines someone gifted them were safe behind it 
Probably not as devastating as some, but a nice reaction from the crowd. My wife and I were shopping at Costco, in the checkout line, transferring from the cart to the belt. We had 3 bottles of 2013 Heitz Napa in the cart, we successfully got the first two from cart to belt, but the third, my wife handed to me, I grasped at nothing but air as the bottle dropped to the floor, glass and wine everywhere. We fumbled the handoff. As the two of us are staring at each other, the lady behind us, after a few seconds, “that smells incredible”. It did.
Well, I have heard 2021 Riesling is sharp.
2016 Realm Bard a few months ago…still makes me sick thinking about it. Luckily, have one left.
While replacing a 1959 Latour in a box stacked over my head, it slipped about an inch from the cradle and the neck snapped.
Had my 1948 Graham outside the wine cabinet and clipped it with the edge of the door, no mercy from the concrete floor.
In the Pan AM cargo terminal at SFO a pallet of 1982 Sassicaia six packs was dumped sideways off the forklift to the floor, 50+ bottles met their fate only three feet from the yellow line where it was to be placed down.
I probably should not mention this, the last breakage the Graham was 20+ years ago.
So I am admittedly a bull in a china shop. If I’m near it, touch it, smell it, chances are I will break it. Or just spill it. Bikes, trucks, bones, hearts, Strava records, and of course, anything and everything related to wine. I routinely text the boys with my latest example of my clumsy oafish behaviors. @ToddFrench encouraged a thread…
So here it is, starting with this week:
And just an historical anecdote, a personal fave…
I can only laugh.
So join in, post your best when it happens so that we can all laugh. You know it happens to you, too, just perhaps not on a weekly basis.
Knowing your palate, that might just been a favor to the wine universe… Jeff Leve looks at that pile and thinks that’s combined 40 points.
(Hope you are ok though!)
I am SO looking forward to this thread…I expect it to be shortlisted for Hall of Fame
Also not sure there will be many other entrants in the ‘post your best’ part, but we’ll be happy to see all your updates!
