Looking back over all my notes for 2010 shows that just as I did have a number of highlight wines in the last year, similarly though, there were quite a few problematic and disappointing ones. I guess on balance this is par for the course, although corked wines in particular really annoy me.
I guess we all like to sing the praises of a great wine, but truth to tell, this isn’t always the case, and for every great wine, there is an equally bad or problem bottle. Here are a few of my highlight problem wines for 2010:
Several top wines were corked, there was a number of whites that were oxidized or just plain past it, whilst some just failed to show anywhere like what the expectations and tasting notes suggest they should have been.
Please feel free to post your problematic wines to make us all feel better in a group therapeutic sort of way…
Some Corked wines that were very disappointing included:
1999 La Tache - Still drinkable (just), and even worse, showing how great a wine it was
1985 Henri Jayer Echezeaux - I know others will probably also have this wine also here this year…
2001 G & H Jayer Echezeaux - Touch of light TCA affected this wine
1966 Roumier Bonnes Mares - Really wanted to try this…
2000 De Vogue Musigny - Blah, and I brought this bottle to a lunch
Oxidised and Wines past it included:
2005 DRC Montrachet - Partially oxidized and on the decline
1976 Henri Jayer Echezeaux - Pretty much gone unfortunately
2000 Coche Dury Mersault Perrieres - My first Coche Perrieres, and it was oxidized…D’oh.
2002 to 2005 Jadot Montrachets & Chevaliers - At least 6 wines which were either partially or fully oxidized
1982 Salon - 3 bottles that were all affected
Wines that disappointed versus their reputation included:
2001 DRC’s and Leroys - Generally just not looking so stellar at present and older/more advanced than expected
2000 and 2002 DRC Montrachet - Both totally outclassed by the 2003
1990 La Tache - A wine I had wanted to try for ages, and this bottle just seem to cut it on the night…
“1990 DRC La Tache:
Given that this is usually a 99pt wine, this was expected to be one of the highlights of the night. The bottle was in good condition, however it just wasn’t what we were expecting, and all were surprised when it was revealed. The wine was quite shy, but still deep and dark, with dark fruit and some stems, but none of that hoisin, spiciness and soy we were expecting of this particular La Tache. The flavor was somewhat mysteriously hidden, and I have to admit, I initially wrote La Tache, but it seemed to retreat into itself as the night wore on, and it never really seemed to open out. I liked it more than the others, but generally there was a feeling of disappointment with this wine. Those that have had it multiple times before thought it wasn’t quite right, and there was some discussion about variation in bottles between different shippers/shipments of this wine. Certainly not a 99pt wine, but in the context of the wines this night, still a decent wine, representative bottle or not. The groups 6th placed wine, I was the dissenter placing it 3rd. I think the general feel here from the group was that it might have been the GE, and I think that is where we all went.
93pts.”
Now, if we could only somehow get a refund… ![[soap.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7ea1fffd3ef237e8f19d17a83270ad8452218ca.gif "soap"){kind=small}