Which wine purchases have severely backfired on you?

[R_Gilbane]

@Kirk.Grant

Until they arrive…my Premier Cru orders.

HA!

[Chris_Seiber]

@Scott W

2003 CDP…at least the ones I bought.

Same here. Really, if I had it to do over again, I would reverse course on all but a few of the wines I bought from the Rhone over the years - there are some good wines, but overall it’s just not my thing.

[Benjamin_Goldberg]

Case of 1985 Spottswoode, all heat damaged.

[Scott_E_Wade]

2004 Red Burgundy.

[Scott_Brunson]

@Anthony Lombardi

@Scott Brunson

Most of my purchases from WA State.

With the exception of C. Baron wines and some Betz.

More from curiosity than anything else, can you elaborate a little on which producers/wines & what you didn’t like?

This is just one example; I have tasted many, many bottles. This was the lineup from a high end WA tasting at the 2nd CT Charleston Offline in Sept of '13.

SESSION III—Saturday Afternoon 21 September—Top Tier Washington Wines at the inn.
2007 Cayuse Grenache God Only Knows
2006 Leonetti Cellars Reserve Walla Walla Valley
2007 Leonetti Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley
2008 Leonetti Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley
2009 Leonetti Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley
2010 Leonetti Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon Walla Walla Valley
2002 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon
2009 Figgins Estate Red in magnum
2007 Betz Family Cabernet Sauvignon Père de Famille
2005 Betz Syrah La Cote Rousse Red Mountain in magnum
2007 Collaboration Series III Syrah Ciel du Cheval Vineyard
There were other “surprises” which appeared as well.

Too much sweet, vanilla-laced, sweet red fruit. Did I mention sweet?

The folks at Rasa did a barrel project of Syrah from the '12 vintage. I’m sitting on about a case and a half; I will age them and see what they do. I have enjoyed the Rasa Creative Impulse.
I do buy Horsepower, No Girls and Cayuse (when I can get my hands on it).

[Cole_Kendall]

1999 Vincent Dancer (white burgs); don’t know that I had a single bottle that was not premox-y.

[Michael_S_Monie]

Some 88 Cuvée Winnie I found in a basement.

[Todd_Laubach]

@Chris Seiber

@Scott W

2003 CDP…at least the ones I bought.

Same here. Really, if I had it to do over again, I would reverse course on all but a few of the wines I bought from the Rhone over the years - there are some good wines, but overall it’s just not my thing.

Couldn’t agree anymore. The 2003’s except for a few have been a complete disaster. I have some 2007’s but I have been drinking through them and trying to enjoy the fruit before they start tasting like the 2003’s.

Besides moving totally away from Rhone’s, my conclusion has been that with few exceptions, most are best drunk within the first 5-7 years.

[Julian_Marshall]

Damn, I just picked up a 2002 Huet at a good price. Guess I’ll open it tonight.

All my Le Mont Secs have been excellent so far, so good luck!

Nobody has mentioned Baumard yet? Well, I forgot - practically all my bottles from 00 to 03 were premoxed.

2004 Red Burgundy.

I feel your pain - been there done that, chucked it down the sink.

Ah, and there’s not forgetting Ducru effing Beaucaillou in the late 80s…tasted remarkably similar to Burg 04…at least the latter was just a poor vintage, whereas Ducru sold literally hundreds of thousands of faulty products in full knowledge of what they were doing.

[Shannon_Perdue]

2004 Red Burgundy

This

[patrick_c_albright]

Way way too much 2006 La Mission Haut Brion.

[A_So]

@patrick c albright

Way way too much 2006 La Mission Haut Brion.

Need some help?

[mstockley]

@Larry Link

1. Worst- 15 cases of Behren’s and Hitchcock’s science project with plastic cork. What a train wreck, sold off a bunch, poured a bunch down the drain, and drank some.

With full disclosure I assume.

[Jeff_Cassetta]

6 - 2003 Le Vieux Donjon Châteauneuf-du-Pape…just a mess of a wine or port for that matter.

Too much Zind Humbrecht…they’re just too rich…I would need to eat more Thai or Indian food…a hard thing to do in Grand Rapids.

[Jane_Crabill]

Not a severe backfire but I bought quite a bit of Australian reds from Grateful Palate and then tired of the wines before they were all consumed–same with some California Chards.

[Joshua_Kates]

When I was getting back into collecting, bought some 07 Cali Cab that I now have doubts about it (Chappelet, Vineyard 29) and the jury is still out on some '05 Harlan the Maiden (first of three was nothing like the truffled beauty I thought I had tried at a public tasting). Similarly, some Italian: 01 Banfi Brunello and perhaps Setti Oreno, which I seemed to have ended up with a lot of.

[Anton_D]

When it first arrived, I bought a bottle of The Prisoner (taste untasted) to take to my in-laws at Thanksgiving.

They love it, I hate it.

The Prisoner haunts me to this day.

I tried ‘splainin,’ but it does no good.

I’ll show up for a holiday and someone will pull out a bottle of it and proclaim, “Hey, look what I brought! Let’s pop it!” (I call those occasions “Beer Night.”)

My wife is threatening to take them a bottle of Caymus 40th if I don’t bribe her.

[Charles_Kersten]

1994 Niepoort and those leaky corks come to mind.

[Larry_Link]

@mstockley

@Larry Link

1. Worst- 15 cases of Behren’s and Hitchcock’s science project with plastic cork. What a train wreck, sold off a bunch, poured a bunch down the drain, and drank some.

With full disclosure I assume.

Sold them to a retailer, who then re-marketed them. Some people like the wines, and they invariably love the Parker points, so what would you disclose?

[P_WythesJr]

Not necessarily a purchase that backfired, more of a lesson learned. I was on the Turley list for a while. One day I looked at all the Turley zins I’d been collecting over the years and realized:

(1) I’d never have enough time to drink it all, and
(2) I really enjoyed Bordeaux and Rhone wines better.

Ended up unloading all but a few bottles. Cathartic to say the least.