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“honestly don’t think I have ever had a $50 plus bottle of wine that I would not have preferred over Barefoot, which has approximately zero taste markers of a w

“honestly don’t think I have ever had a $50 plus bottle of wine that I would not have preferred over Barefoot, which has approximately zero taste markers of a wine made to taste good.” I can’t believe that. I’ve never had barefoot and probably never will but there’s a lot of totally undrinkable, maybe even semi-poisonous, expensive wine. It’s not even rare. If you buy from a good merchant this is less of a problem but still, expensive wines go bad, and some were never good to begin with.

csa 4y ago
> but there’s a lot of totally undrinkable, maybe even semi-poisonous, expensive wine “A lot”? Really? Change your wine merchant if that’s the case. That said, sure, I mean, if you want to include flawed wines like ones with brett, ones that haven’t been stored properly (e.g., in the sun), wines way past the their peak, etc., then one will certainly run into some bad wines at any price point. That’s sort of a given, imho, and is in no way a reflection of the quality of the wine. That certainly doesn’t in general make the high end wine “fake” or not worth a higher price (at least to some point), which is the point of the linked article.
barrkel 4y ago
The most likely expensive dud you're going to see is aged Burgundy reds. Many don't make it. Very old red wine (e.g. 30+ years), if it's not fortified or a dessert wine, is also not particularly pleasant. I've had some very famous Bordeaux from some celebrated 70s vintage, a sip from Hedonism Wines in London, and it was very much not worth it; more than anything else, it reminded me of clothes in an old person's closet. On the other hand, the same day I had a sip of something sweet from the 19th century - like 1898 or something - from Crimea, and it wasn't bad. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad or undrinkable either. Might have been related to these batches - https://quillandpad.com/2020/07/21/the-massandra-collection-crimean-wine-that-screams-place-and-history-and-what-a-story-it-tells/ https://quillandpad.com/2020/07/21/the-massandra-collection-...

csa 4y ago

> but there’s a lot of totally undrinkable, maybe even semi-poisonous, expensive wine “A lot”? Really? Change your wine merchant if that’s the case. That said, sure, I mean, if you want to include flawed wines like ones with brett, ones that haven’t been stored properly (e.g., in the sun), wines way past the their peak, etc., then one will certainly run into some bad wines at any price point. That’s sort of a given, imho, and is in no way a reflection of the quality of the wine. That certainly doesn’t in general make the high end wine “fake” or not worth a higher price (at least to some point), which is the point of the linked article.

barrkel 4y ago

The most likely expensive dud you're going to see is aged Burgundy reds. Many don't make it. Very old red wine (e.g. 30+ years), if it's not fortified or a dessert wine, is also not particularly pleasant. I've had some very famous Bordeaux from some celebrated 70s vintage, a sip from Hedonism Wines in London, and it was very much not worth it; more than anything else, it reminded me of clothes in an old person's closet. On the other hand, the same day I had a sip of something sweet from the 19th century - like 1898 or something - from Crimea, and it wasn't bad. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad or undrinkable either. Might have been related to these batches - https://quillandpad.com/2020/07/21/the-massandra-collection-crimean-wine-that-screams-place-and-history-and-what-a-story-it-tells/ https://quillandpad.com/2020/07/21/the-massandra-collection-...