Anything labeled Caymus, Silver Oak, Rombauer, Meiomi, or Prisoner.
Anything with a shelf talker mentioning balance or sommeliers
So you guys mean to tell me that the Grateful Dead Red I’ve been sitting on patiently for 20 years is no good?
These ones and similar:
-And back-labeled bottles, telling Me all the flavors I will soon experience… 
-Søren.
why do you not trust your local wine store tasting more expensive wine?
Yeah, sorry. I don’t get the first one at all. The local shops I frequent all are run by people who love good wine and often use their tastings to try and get people to taste very good wines. Most of which are over $16.
Also, I don’t bother with the full page Spectator ads for my wines and I don’t like the douche-y allocation games some wineries play. I far prefer to have people taste what I produce and make their own minds up based on what’s in the bottle.
Because it’s never the local shop owners/workers that choose the pours. It’s always the distributors or selling reps that run the tastings. Maybe you are lucky to live in an area with better local wine shops.
K&L has some pretty good tastings every weekend at each of their local stores, and they do some really good larger ones a couple times a year…
Pre-arrival.
I am currently revamping the whole label to a skinny naked puppy in a flat bottom 1.5 for $16.
any signs of past seepage (aside from port)
nicked labels for the trophy wines
Wines that are WAY too heavily discounted from other retailers
As for comments about over 16 and poured at lws I am too perplexed. My lws has opened some of he best wines I have tasted over the years, I remember after superstorm sandy they send out an email that they were opening up the most expensive bottle of wine that had for sale in the shop. Petrus on the house! Being a frequent flyer and having personal relationships with many of the sales/management team I had more that a taste but less than a glass.
Also I can ask them to open almost any bottle for me to drink in the shop prior to making a purchase decision. My lws also takes back corked, tainted, heat damaged and even dropped/cracked bottles of wines. If they still sell the vintage its an exchange, if its an older bolder they give you current vintage of same label.
You might be surprised to see how many wineries are using those scores these days. That said, they do have different reviewers reviewing them that a number of years ago. The scores do tend to be pretty elevated. Makes for good marketing though 
Too much for me to mention here, and I would be flamed if I did! (sometimes one person’s treasure is another’s trash heap) . . .
I’m sorry you don’t have good local wine shop choices. I appreciate that I have better options. For example, one local shop is hosting Hank Beckmeyer from La Clarine Farm tonight. Other producers I can think of off the top of my head who have poured there in the last couple of years include Aurelian Laherte, Evelyne de Pontbriand (Closel Savennieres), Korbin Ming (Korbin Kameron), Barbara Selbach (Selbach-Oster), Matt Rorick (Forlorn Hope), Eric Texier, Fred Scherrer, Anne Dashe, and Hardy Wallace (Dirty and Rowdy).
There are other stores in town that tend to be more generic, but several others that bring in similar quality to those I mentioned. For that reason, I disagree with your red flag.
Lol! That’s how little I care about that guy. Can’t even remember his real fake name.
To the contrary, it’s a trip. But it must be drunk with LSD.
Alfred Wong is the butler for Chinese Batman.
Any wine is a straw basket.
I hate wines made of straw. Too grassy.
Garagiste.