I opened two bottles last night by a beloved contributor to wine woot and they were both damaged, one terribly by heat. It's possible that the other was going through a dumb phase (something I don't have the requisite exp to evaluate).

Just curious what bottles have shown poorly compared to expectations on fairly youthful wine, ie sub 10-15 years, which had been well handled.

Also, what'd you do?

(I opened a third and it was wonderful)

Oh, fun question. I'll have to think about it...

What wine did you drink? I have a guess.

I think the most disappointing bottle from a Woot wine purchase that was not flawed or damaged was the 08 Saxon Brown One Oak Zin. Lots of hype and I had high hopes...Meh

KR petite sirah based on hype I thought it would kick butt...it was thin, bland, and sucked! Maybe a flawed bottle?

kylemittskus wrote:Oh, fun question. I'll have to think about it...

What wine did you drink? I have a guess.

06 and 07 single vineyard designates from Peter. Have only had wonderful experiences with his wines and am part of the club. I wonder whether the overheated one was damaged in transit...no real way of knowing.

Cycles Gladiator 2011 zin and 2010 CS. I was excited to pick these up as part of a mixed case based on the fact they were produced by the normally reliable Hahn family and very positive comments about previously Cycles Gladiator offerings.

These two rank as the worst wines I have ever consumed. Tested like they were blended with cat pee, which I subsequently learned is typical of mercaptans and is a known winemaking fault. Wasn't just my bottles, as others also made similar reports.

Next after that would probably be the KR 1001 pinot noir. I knew this wasn't going to be top-notch PN, but because it was from KR I had high hopes that it would at least outperform it's price.

losthighwayz wrote:KR petite sirah based on hype I thought it would kick butt...it was thin, bland, and sucked! Maybe a flawed bottle?

Which year? I have had the '07 and '08 and both were awesome. I drink quite a bit of petite sirah as well. My guess would be a flawed bottle, or at least a degree of cork taint.

canonizer wrote:06 and 07 single vineyard designates from Peter. Have only had wonderful experiences with his wines and am part of the club. I wonder whether the overheated one was damaged in transit...no real way of knowing.

Overall I have been quite underwhelmed by Peter's offerings. I did have an '05 Estate Zin which was flawed. I know it was flawed because I had the same wine about a month later at Klez's place and it was much better.

I haven't splurged on his Victory blend because of my less than great experiences with his zins and merlot, but have tried them from fellow wooters. They have been good, but not worth the price tag (even on woot) imo.

noslensj wrote:
Next after that would probably be the KR 1001 pinot noir. I knew this wasn't going to be top-notch PN, but because it was from KR I had high hopes that it would at least outperform it's price.

I have to agree. Those pinots were disappointing even at that price.

tytiger58 wrote:I think the most disappointing bottle from a Woot wine purchase that was not flawed or damaged was the 08 Saxon Brown One Oak Zin. Lots of hype and I had high hopes...Meh

This is probably mine from wine.woot! Actually, that chard he offered may have beaten it, but really disappointed overall with this producer.

trifecta wrote:Which year? I have had the '07 and '08 and both were awesome. I drink quite a bit of petite sirah as well. My guess would be a flawed bottle, or at least a degree of cork taint.

The 08. I know it was not corked but wondering if flawed? Found it thin and tanjic with little, if ant fruit. Paired with a filet mignon and did not enhance the meal. I am used to bold, dark fruit petites.

tytiger58 wrote:I think the most disappointing bottle from a Woot wine purchase that was not flawed or damaged was the 08 Saxon Brown One Oak Zin. Lots of hype and I had high hopes...Meh

This would be the woot from Jan last year? Sigh. What about the Syrah's? I've not pulled any of those corks yet.

A wine gifted to me, '2006 Boingiu' from Umpqua Valley.
73% Syrah, 27% Baco Noir.
Got two bottles. Couldn't even use the first for cooking/vinegar, haven't had the courage to open the second.

rjquillin wrote:This would be the woot from Jan last year? Sigh. What about the Syrah's? I've not pulled any of those corks yet.

The chard? Yeah. The doc didnt like it either. All oak and alcohol. Really off-balance. Really awkward. I didn't get the Syrahs.

rjquillin wrote:This would be the woot from Jan last year? Sigh. What about the Syrah's? I've not pulled any of those corks yet.

Not sure but thankfully I just got one bottle in a trade with Kyle IIRC,and yes that chard was really really bad...but I did not have as high hopes for that bottle.

That being said I have had a very high success rate with most bottles I have bought from Woot

canonizer wrote:06 and 07 single vineyard designates from Peter. Have only had wonderful experiences with his wines and am part of the club. I wonder whether the overheated one was damaged in transit...no real way of knowing.

You're in the club, so you're getting shipments anyway. Just call them and explain you had a couple flawed bottles and he'll replace them in your next shipment. I've done that before in person, and they said to not bother bringing the half empty bottle next time

For woot bottles I have to echo the Saxon brown '08 Zin but I will also add black zeppelin PS '09 and kent Rasmussen cab franc esoterica. All of which had significant hype and were "Meh" at best.

cmaldoon wrote:For woot bottles I have to echo the Saxon brown '08 Zin but I will also add black zeppelin PS '09 and kent Rasmussen cab franc esoterica. All of which had significant hype and were "Meh" at best.

Agree with the black zep. Stillman's wines have been mostly a disappointment. The chateau d abalone (1st offering) was pretty awesome though.

In general, the Sunce mixed case that was offered 12/27/2010. MEH!

noslensj wrote:Cycles Gladiator 2011 zin and 2010 CS. I was excited to pick these up as part of a mixed case based on the fact they were produced by the normally reliable Hahn family and very positive comments about previously Cycles Gladiator offerings.

These two rank as the worst wines I have ever consumed. Tested like they were blended with cat pee, which I subsequently learned is typical of mercaptans and is a known winemaking fault. Wasn't just my bottles, as others also made similar reports.

Next after that would probably be the KR 1001 pinot noir. I knew this wasn't going to be top-notch PN, but because it was from KR I had high hopes that it would at least outperform it's price.

These would be my choices as well. I thought the cycles cab. Was passable but the zin went right down the drain.

The KR 1001 Pinot was easily the worst Pinot I have had from woot.

2006 Chronicle zins were terrible.

KR 1001 Pinot was awful but pretty cheap .( I love his Esoterica PS BTW).

Overall I would say that routinely the most overhyped( and under producing) wines on Woot have been nearly every wine from Ty Caton. Even his Tytanium was unremarkable.

I have many more in my cellar waiting to be opened, each time I open one I hope that more aging will breath some character into these wines and each time, I am again disappointed.

The frequency with which his wines are now appearing on other flash sites suggest that I am not alone...

klezman wrote:You're in the club, so you're getting shipments anyway. Just call them and explain you had a couple flawed bottles and he'll replace them in your next shipment. I've done that before in person, and they said to not bother bringing the half empty bottle next time

I'll have to figure out whether I bought it through woot or through the club. You don't consider this the cost of doing business?

jmdavidson wrote:In general, the Sunce mixed case that was offered 12/27/2010. MEH!

I don't think it's fair to call the Sunce case "hyped", I was hopeful to get something drinkable and learning more about aged wines is valuable in its own right. The Cabs from it were by far the best, the meritage way out of balance and the merlot somewhere in between.

But in that case, we paid something like $10/bottle. I wouldn't expect anything sublime. They weren't making any real assurances about the quality of storage in between release and present day.

I would rate that one of the very solid values among my 100ish w.w. purchases.

rlmanzo wrote:KR 1001 Pinot was awful but pretty cheap .( I love his Esoterica PS BTW).

Overall I would say that routinely the most overhyped( and under producing) wines on Woot have been nearly every wine from Ty Caton. Even his Tytanium was unremarkable.

I have many more in my cellar waiting to be opened, each time I open one I hope that more aging will breath some character into these wines and each time, I am again disappointed.

The frequency with which his wines are now appearing on other flash sites suggest that I am not alone...

I thought the low end KR wine was actually very good in exhibiting varietal qualities, perhaps without refinement.

I bought Ty's first few offerings years ago and never really felt any desire to go back. I didn't think my bottles were flawed, his wines were just too 'new world' for my palate.

This is one of the reasons why it's nice to split 3 or 4packs. Sharing helps defray some of the risk (and diminish the benefit) about your take on the wine.

canonizer wrote:I don't think it's fair to call the Sunce case "hyped", I was hopeful to get something drinkable and learning more about aged wines is valuable in its own right. The Cabs from it were by far the best, the meritage way out of balance and the merlot somewhere in between.

But in that case, we paid something like $10/bottle. I wouldn't expect anything sublime. They weren't making any real assurances about the quality of storage in between release and present day.

I would rate that one of the very solid values among my 100ish w.w. purchases.

Wasn't Sunce the winery with the rep who was the wife of the winemaker and she and I -- and really she and most of us -- just didn't get along.

kylemittskus wrote:Wasn't Sunce the winery with the rep who was the wife of the winemaker and she and I -- and really she and most of us -- just didn't get along.

Yup. She's not all there. She PM'd me and called me a twerp after I made a comment. Lol

kylemittskus wrote:Wasn't Sunce the winery with the rep who was the wife of the winemaker and she and I -- and really she and most of us -- just didn't get along.

Yup, they had a bunch of 'boosters' i believe. Still, I don't think you can get upset about $10 bottles.

canonizer wrote:I'll have to figure out whether I bought it through woot or through the club. You don't consider this the cost of doing business?

In some ways I do - but it's the winery's cost of doing business. If you'd been holding on to the bottle for 10 years, it's a different story, but this sounded like a relatively recent vintage. I consider this the benefit of having a relationship with a winery and winemaker. They know you and know you're not trying to screw them over.

losthighwayz wrote:Yup. She's not all there. She PM'd me and called me a twerp after I made a comment. Lol

This is why you're awesome.

canonizer wrote:I opened two bottles last night by a beloved contributor to wine woot and they were both damaged, one terribly by heat. It's possible that the other was going through a dumb phase (something I don't have the requisite exp to evaluate).

Just curious what bottles have shown poorly compared to expectations on fairly youthful wine, ie sub 10-15 years, which had been well handled.

Also, what'd you do?

(I opened a third and it was wonderful)

If your wine is actually damaged, I'd contact support@woot.com and see if it was indeed the heat.

If you just didn't like it, welllll.

For me it was the J.Rickards Alexander Valley Zinfandel. I wonder if this got heat damage because others here seem to love it, and I like all styles of Zin from restrained to fruit grenades, as long as they're good!

bsevern wrote:For me it was the J.Rickards Alexander Valley Zinfandel. I wonder if this got heat damage because others here seem to love it, and I like all styles of Zin from restrained to fruit grenades, as long as they're good!

Id venture to say heat damage. I enjoy zins from restrained to full blown fruit bombs and I enjoyed the Tikards which was on the typical Dry Creek/alexander Valley fruit bomb end of the spectrum. It was a bit too oaked for my taste but enjoyable nonetheless.

Opened a bottle of 97 ardente.. Corked... Oh well. One left and the one that we did have was great.

2009 Red Zeppelin Petite sirah black zeppelin

ERMD wrote:Opened a bottle of 97 ardente.. Corked... Oh well. One left and the one that we did have was great.

Let support know about it, and they'll take care of it.

ddeuddeg wrote:Let support know about it, and they'll take care of it.

Yes I know, I just consider it to be part of buying wine. Now if one of the mods wants to send me a bottle, I wont reject it

inkycatz wrote:If your wine is actually damaged, I'd contact support@woot.com and see if it was indeed the heat.

If you just didn't like it, welllll.

The first bottle bore all the indications of heat damage. The second bottle was flawed in a variety of ways.

Just opened a bottle of Cycles Gladiator 2011 Zin. Hands down, this is the worst bottle of wine I have ever had. Saying this is not an exaggeration. It had a bizarre chemical smell on opening which did not disappear with time. I'm not even sure how to describe it on the tongue. This couldn't be used in cooking, much less than be drunk. What a disappointment.

From woot: La Vie Vineyards Pinot Noir Duo. Both of these bottles were terrible. It took me years before I tried pinot again. Now, I find a great bottle to be transcendental!

alpineguy wrote:Just opened a bottle of Cycles Gladiator 2011 Zin. Hands down, this is the worst bottle of wine I have ever had. Saying this is not an exaggeration. It had a bizarre chemical smell on opening which did not disappear with time. I'm not even sure how to describe it on the tongue. This couldn't be used in cooking, much less than be drunk. What a disappointment.

Read upthread; you are not alone. I offered my characterization of that bizarre chemical component.