Wine red flags

[RichardFlack]

“Expect to taste…”. (A favorite at the KGBO)
Scores from a different vintage

(Plus most of the other nominations here - this thread is a hoot)

[Phil_David]

@Anton D

That was purely chain-pulling to see who would catch me!

You are, of course, right on!

I am happy to see you were OK with my Australia joke.

This was a good one:

Names that don’t make for ready identification of the grape-types used to make the wine.

[Brian_Tuite]

@Barry Paul Price

Some of my ‘Red Flags’:

• Wilfred Wong 90+
• Name is something too timely and topical, and the Producer/Company name at the bottom of the back label is the exact same name with LLC added. Such as “Election Year” by “Election Year Wines LLC” a Nevada company.
• It’s prominently displayed surrounded by cheeses, in the cheese section of the supermarket (usually on an endcap of an aisle or the olive-bar, with the bottle standing on a wheel of cheese)

FIFY!

As for stickers, ths wine came with one and was IMO the best Zinfandel I have ever tasted. YMMV!

[Brian_Tuite]

@Chris Seiber

Alfred Wong is the butler for Chinese Batman.

[Brian_Tuite]

@David Glasser

@Anton D

Precious names. Pun names.

Having the word “Australia” on the label.

Labels that change art from vintage to vintage.

Spoofy bottle shapes.

Names that don’t make for ready identification of the grape-types used to make the wine.

Wines with pictures of wines or wine paraphernalia on the label.

Wines with a vintage date that is yet to occur.

Wines with label marketing terms on the label.

Mouton?
SQN?

Exceptions that prove the rule? Though there are those who would rate them (SQN more than Mouton) DNPIM.

Eric Kent


Or


Marilyn Merlot

[K_John_Joseph]

@Brian Tuite

As for stickers, ths wine came with one and was IMO the best Zinfandel I have ever tasted. YMMV!

What a fascinating piece of wine history. The last vintage of Hacienda del Rio. Also one of the first before the Williams-Selyem rename occurred. Really neat bottle of wine.

[Larry_P]

@Chris Seiber

These are very rough, and there are probably worthy exceptions.

• Wines with a sticker on the bottle showing a critic’s score

• Wines with a pun nickname, like ArtiZin and 7 Deadly Zins (it’s usually zinfandel, but there are probably others)

• Opaque wine bottles

• Wines being hawked by some person standing at a table inside the grocery store or Costco offering samples

• Labels with cuddly animals on them

Very close to mine:

• No puns
• No cartoons
• No animals, except ravens.

The “gold medal” sticker or critic’s score are good ones to add.

[Mike_Sale]

@larry schaffer

@Leonard Maran

You might be surprised to see how many wineries are using those scores these days.

Absolutely breaks my heart when I see ABC bolding WE scores and sending out score based mailers to their wine club. No one who would actually be able to really enjoy the ABC 2009 Tally Chard should be using WE score, yet… there it is.