In the old days there was a saying, “Beware the 11 bottle case”
With changing palates and styles not so sure it’s as much of a danger sign as it used to be. People are just as likely to be blindsided by, for example, the oaky ,mess that l’Evangile has become. Which I suppose is just as much a danger of you don’t like that in a wine.
No great ones that I know of, and that’s why absence of a pushed cork or external signs of leakage are not a guarantee. All I can say is that in my experience duds have been infrequent.
On old bottles, excess ullage is a clue. If my 30 year old bottles are still in the neck, a mid-shoulder fill is worrisome and I’ll pass. Then again, I’ve seen mid- and low-shoulder bottles that seemed fine. So maybe I’m missing out on some bargains. Or maybe that’s why my dud rate is low. 
Thanks so much for the info, David.
One more question: when you see ‘passive protected’ as how it was stored with the owner, is that a non-starter?
I’d say it’s a yellow flag for me. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know if it came from Florida, where it’s hot and there are no basements, or from your great state of Minnesota.
I’m mostly bidding on Bordeaux from the '80s and '90s, so if fill levels are good and there are no signs of past leakage, I’ll bid. If it’s Champagne, which is more fragile, I’d pass.
I wouldn’t argue the point with someone who said they’d pass on any passively stored lot.
I buy all red Burgundy. All from 2001 on. I have only bought a handful that were passive protected, none of which I’ve tried yet. We’ll see.
Current/recent release may mitigate some of that risk.
I remember one bottle I purchased checked all of the boxes (recent release, professional storage, fill well into the neck, label and capsule looked clean) and it seemed brett affected, reminding me that it’s always a crap shoot. Luckily, it was a test bottle for me & passed on bidding for the rest.
Hopefully one of the Burgheads will chime in with their experience. Unless they don’t want to share their trade secrets.
They are all at the Paulee, probably feeling no pain at this point.
It looks like you have some drinking experimenting to do!
Come to think of it, the 2001 Jadot Clos de Beze for which I recently posted a glowing TN came from Winebid. It was a stunner.
Another night of aggressive bidding and sniping at WineBid. I lost out on everything despite multiple follow-up bids in overtime. If the wine market is down, you can’t tell on that site.
Wines from a particular region? It was relatively quiet on the N. Rhone front.
…and again
Everything was running fine on my end and refreshing at end of auction.
Went dead for about 15 minutes right at the end.
Did a bottle of 2010 MacDonald really sell for over 2K?
Been a while since there’s been any decent Musars in Winebid. Snagged a '03.
As far as I can tell, if you lose an auction, then after the close, you can’t see any information at all, right?
What you bid on, what other bids happened when, what it sold for? It’s like the whole exercise is just scrubbed away.
Kind of weird. I am more often relieved than bummed when I lose an auction, but it’s a weird feeling having it all disappear from the he record. I’d also kind of like to learn a bit from the experience.
Unless the info is there and I’m not looking the right place?
Click BIDS. There’s a scroll down option where it says “current items”. From there you can go to a specific previous auction and see all the lots you bid on or tracked.
Thanks. I would have never found that on my own.