What wine were you most wrong about?

At a tasting last night, were talking about 2003 Burgundy and Bordeaux. Some of us loathed the 03 Bordeauxs young and have been surprised that some of them, tasted blindly, have been quite decent over the last year or two.

What wines have you badly over- or underrated?

Chianti in general. I always thought it was horrible, nasty, vile stuff and completely avoided it until about 17 years ago when I had a bottle that was so good I just had to learn more about it. Now I love it.

There was a time when I liked Sauvignon Blanc. Not sure what I was thinking.

Moer specifically, I have been fooled by some Southern French reds that ended up as woody messes (e.g. 2005 Château Guiot Costières-de-Nîmes Cuvée Numa - oh gosh what a train wreck).

Many of the rest come from dramatic shifts in my palate (e.g. 2001 Pape Clement - I used to like it) more so than the wine changing/evolving in an unexpected way.

About five months ago, a bottle of Batard-Montrachet '02 from Jean-Marc Morey. It had a dull-looking core, showed overripe notes and butterscotch on the nose, was tired on the mid-palate, lacked acidity and had a fraying finish.
It seemed like text-book a p’ox case, but three hours of slow oxygenation later it had performed a complete turnaround and ended up as a 90-91 pointer.
To say I was baffled is an understatement.

2000 red Burgundies. When I first tasted them, they seemed light and thin and I did not think they would amount to much. Over the next year or so they seemed to put on weight and now they are a joy to drink. I wish I had bought more.

Port. Bought a bunch, just don’t enjoy it.
Still have a couple bottles. Should get these on CC, so someone can enjoy them.

2004 Red Burgundy. I really liked the elegant red fruited nature until they turned weird.

I could also say ripe cali pinot, but I wasn’t “wrong” about that, my tastes have simply changed.

Large format bottles (larger than a magnum).

Almost impossible to find a time to open one. We always prefer a glass or two of several different wines, not multiple glasses of the same wine.

1983 Red Burgundy. Really underestimated them…

TTT

+99 - especially ripe pinot which I no longer enjoy and chablis/chenin blanc/champagne which I have come to really enjoy over the past several years. OMG…I just realized 35% of my cellar is now comprised of white wines. [swoon.gif] 3-4 years ago I would have said there is no way in a million years I would have this much. Funny what dramatic palate shifts will do.

Not so much a wine, but a grape:

Back in the 1990s, when I couldn’t afford even to contemplate buying wine that cost more than $20/bottle, I tried a number of California Merlots and found them all insipid and flabby…so I didn’t drink Merlot, AT ALL, for almost 20 years. Recently I have discovered some right-bank Bordeaux, and an Italian Merlot (Falesco), that are under $20, and which are darn tasty. This has cause me to reevaluate Merlot; I envisage discovering a good many pleasant new wines, especially from Bordeaux.

That is probably because the really bad ones are not around anymore. I have had some that are wonderful and some that are undrinkable. Really a mixed vintage.

Overrated - Almost every '07 Napa Cab I’ve tried. Made the rookie mistake of buying heavy based on rave reviews, without tasting any of them first. For my tastes, almost all have them have been too big and overblown.

I’m never wrong, I just find new and different data points. [snort.gif]

Bruce

As a retailer back then, I came back from France raving about the great 1983 vintage - purchased a ton - and of course pushed them on every customer I had - while I agree that some of the top wine makers made rot-free wines - the bulk of what I have seen develop should have been left alone - I am still embarrassed over it - and still feel that there are customers out there that would love to slit my throat for talking them into purchasing the wines -

Overrated: I believed Cali Pinots would mellow to become more like Burgs.

Underrated: The age worthiness of Village Burgs. I drank most far too young, yet older than most of my friends did. I gave them 10 years, I should have waited 15-20.

I also underrated the 2000, 2001 and 2008 Burgundy vintages.

I badly misjudged most traditional Barolo and Barbaresco when I first got interested in the region. The best example is Marcarini, whose wines I thought were pale and diluted when I first encountered them in the mid-90s. By contrast, the Marco de Grazia producers (Scavino, etc.) – who took up most of the Piemonte shelf slots in the NYC area at the time – were fleshy, darker and altogether more impressive in the mouth.

Now I know that wines like Marcarini can take on flesh and morph into something wonderful, and I prefer the transparency of that style of nebbiolo.

+1 in a big way

I wish I had been your customer then, Tom. I have always thought highly of this vintage, from the time I first tasted in on a visit in 1985 (and tasted and bought some '83 Truchot-Martin’s which turned out wonderfully; I still have a couple of bottles, I think).

They have taken a long time to show their beauty, but beauty it is…last weekend a friend served us a 1983 Henri Magnien Gevrey-Cazetiers that , were I not already hooked a long time ago, could have been an epiphany wine.

Though I have owned and drunk lots of this vintage…I’d still love to find more to have. In all the bottles I’ve tasted and drunk, I have never found any “rot” in any of them, though I think the brown colors, which happened pretty early on…in the first 15 years…led people to conclude that. Though there was certainly a bit of rot around in 1983, according to some writers, I think that the idea that “rot” is abundant in 1983 wines is what “people” are “most wrong” about. It has become an “urban myth” perpetuated by unwitting mouthpieces for it…like all urban myths… [smileyvault-ban.gif]

For me, in my collecting career, I think I’ve been most “wrong” about Sauternes/Barsac and Alsace SGN wines. Though I love to taste them once in a while…and I’ve bought a good number in smaller formats over the years, I figured way wrong on their use at the table. Though I often have them ready to serve…they never get served or drunk. Almost no one is really interested in having them…at that point…me included. And, to further hammer the wrong, my son broke a '90 Climens this month, that was sitting on our kitchen counter waiting its turn to be un-used at the table, and returned to the waiting line.

Exactly. If you want glasses, buy a case!