I don’t remember for sure what the worst ever wine was, but I had a Martinelli Jackass Hill zin that also made vow never again. As I remember it had scored 93 points, but it was awful.
Yes! High up on my list. I was served the '02 blindly in March and posted a note:
But, for me, the prize still goes to Old Tavern Red from Moldova. Unless you like shoe polish …
I’ve had many horrific non-flawed wines. Many showed loads of heat, were soupy and sweet, and also had an extremity of nasty green extraction. Just vomit-inducing.
Some of those and some others had some degree of rotten taste, and not always rotten grape.
Seems like it would take a lot of effort to make a wine that bad - and while some were bottom shelf Chilean wines from TJ’s, other were from people proud of their work! I guess the easiest method would be: 1) Find the most brutal machine harvester ever made. Perhaps '50s era Eastern Bloc. 2) Attach a wood chipper. Why destem? Why sort our leaves and mogg? The more extraction the better, right? 3) Ferment in whatever vessels you can find for cheap. Don’t bother to cover. Once it sticks, give it another week or two. Pro tip: When the fruit flies start dying en masse, that’s a good time to press. 4) Oak? Why bother? Vanilla extract, if you like. 5) Once bottled, wait for the big scores. 6) (In most cases) keep waiting. 7) Scratch head, wonder what you could’ve done wrong.
I had enough $40-$50 red burgundy that was just meh. Enough to make me give up on french pinot. Had a Garagiste Special, Schild Estate GMS that was nasty. 50 points. At least it was only $6. Also remember buying a $20 Garagiste Mystery Pinot from Oregon that was complete garbage.
Also I had the 2013 Seven of Hearts Curmudgeon Cuvee. A truly “shitty” Pinot Noir that only Bob Wood would have liked. I think I gave it 95 points. 
The ‘99 RRV Reserve seemed like it was about 16-16.5% on a good day.
Worst wine I have ever had. Period. Charlie Wagner is rolling over in his grave.
Well, I just a had rather spendy zero dosage champagne that was so unbalanced and tart that we ended up pouring 1/2 of it into our cooking wine container in the freezer. A 2012 Savart Champagne Expression Nature. A shame.
#metoo
Retsina bought on a whim (childhood spent reading Roald Dahl bubbling up there). Utterly disgusting and vile; perhaps needing to be paired with olives as the book suggests
I wonder if anyone has tried adding their own simple syrup to balance under-dosed champagne
Have had a ton of bad, insipid, or sugary sweet industrial plonk at weddimgs or events primarily. Too many to remember and many were dumped and forgotten.
The worst wines that I expected to be good were the clos st jean cdp from the mid 2000’s- just awful raisiny hot wines to my taste. And the 98 Cantemerle- green, weedy, overly herbal.
A few years ago,we had a brut nature that was a bit too tart. We added a little bit of sugar as a test. Honestly, it helped a little, but wasnt great.
Interesting. We tried it on release at a Berserker OL, since it was much discussed and controversial then. Then, to me, it was a solid bottom shelf grocery store wine that would be fairly priced around $12 (boring ripe fruit, propped up with oak superficiality). Parker’s review describes a wine that to him should rate about 90 pts., but he states how well IT WILL age, due to what’s on the label. Sounds like his label bias didn’t pan out.
Retsina – tastes like PineSol.
Most of the posted complaints were based on stylistic objections.
I just had one of the foulest wines I’ve ever had. Bichi Listan (Mission) Guadalupe Vlly/Baja/MX. This is a “natural” winemaker who’s gaining a lot of traction with that crowd. I tried it last night when I got it home. Lovely aromatics but a bit too “natty” on the palate for me. Tried it again a bit ago and the mousey/hantavirus character made it one of the foulest wines I’ve ever put in my mouth. It left a taste in my mouth that even water could not douse. Susan took a taste and immediately dumped it down the sink. First time she’s ever done that. Dreadful stuff.
Before that, the worst was a LaClarine PetiteManseng. Another darling of the natural wine crowd. Very same hantavirus character plus a screeching acidity as well. A few months later, I took my last remaining btl to show Paul (their NM distributor) how bad a wine it was. Turned out this btl was pretty decent, with only a slight natty character.
Tom
Well, Poppy. Some are distinctly PineSol/ turpentine very resins. But there are a few that have toned-down resins that are actually kinda refreshing. But resin is not what most people want in their wine.
Tom
Meiomi Pinot Noir was awful. No varietal character whatsoever, it tasted like chewing tobacco.
Do you mean SWEET chewing tobacco. Meiomi is terrible stuff!!!
I’m sure whatever they served us in my WSET class was the cheap stuff, but I’m confident I never want to try any of that again!
As a retailer, we are subjected to numerous “outstanding” wines we need to taste that will be a hit with our customers. I can’t remember which one was the worst let alone the name and varietal.
Unsuitable is far too kind. A Pennsylvania Marechal Foch was easily the worst wine I have ever had. A wine that literally tasted of feces, or as someone colorfully put it, a shitstorm in the mouth. There were some fine wines served after that but I could not rid myself of the taste of the Foch. Utterly disgusting.