great episode! i have to take this glass thru a carwash! instant classic. + a corked one.

Gotta say I saw the results of this one coming before I even hit play. Sorry you had to put your palate though that, Gary. But hey, that’s why we love you.

Gaz, I’ve had the hold sign on pinot for the last few years and you just saved me a few bucks. Cheers!

I was recently gifted a 1.5L Aussie chardonnay, Masterpeace (nice play on words) which was pretty bad.

and who the hell opened a 05 SS Ten already? you didn’t like it? maybe b/c it is two years away from approachability?

Worst wine under ten bones?

Well, it was way under ten bones. It was basement wine from the town of Corniglia in the Cinque Terre. It was a golden, white wine that came in an apple juice bottle “corked” with a rolled up piece of wax paper stuffed in the neck. We were hiking through the Cinque Terre and stopped to buy wine out of an old woman’s basement because we read that they make good wine there. We drank it for the romance. Everyone was a hot mess the next day.

Gary,
Really, Pinot Noir ar those prices? I have yet to enjoy any Pinot under $12. When you get to $5 and $6, good God man!

QOTD: All Charles Shaw wine. Just dreadful stuff.

Gary thanks for trying to pull in the Israeli wine here! I’ll stop hassling you now… Just one more example of why the wine world needs to embrace the screw cap!!!
QOTD: Some red wine from the Ukraine which had a strange picture of a 19th century woman on the label but as for varietal I haven’t a clue. I could barely swallow it but the Ukranian girl I was with at the time had picked it up for dinner so I had to force it down with a lot of food. At least she thought I loved her cooking.

Ouch. Predictable, but painful.

The only good Pinot I’ve had in that range is from Augistinos (Chile) from WL. Hmmm…maybe taste that one again on your next value pinot episode?

QOTD: I have had three Cali Chards in the 10-40 dollar range in the last week – ALL were nothing but buttered popcorn. I lost my left leg to the oak monster. WHY??? Why do they always use so much damn oak? In contrast, had a chablis from Servin yesterday- was absolutely amazing.

Gary – could you taste the SBRAGIA gamble valley chard? It’s 95 points from james laube, with more oak than a sawmill!! I’m interested to see how your palate compares to Laube’s.

Let’s see, there was the line of dogtail I tasted which was pretty terrible. There were a few wines from Uruguay sitting somewhere that I didn’t want to taste because I didn’t want to go blind. There were also the cavit pinot grigios, the beringer white zinfandels, and a whole mess of other stuff.

I actually enjoyed that episode a lot. How about a value pinot episode – under $25? There was a great topic on the boards about this yesterday. It would be great to see some fo these head to head.

QOTD – That’s a tough one. I tend to try to forget them. Does Carlo Rossi count or is that not wine?

QOTD: Too many to name, to be honest. Tail end of college we were broke and still trying to get into wine so whatever Harris Teeter had on Bonus Buy was the take home prize. I distinctly remember an Australian shiraz with a koala on the label that I spit back into the glass and a Gewurzt in a bottle shaped like a black cat that caused more damage to my mouth than a Starbucks espresso.

QOTD: Cono Sur Pinot Noir. I also had an Errazuriz Shiraz-y thing that was right disgusting. Nothing however beats that Cono Sur. Absolutely appalling. One of only 2 wines I’ve ever dumped down the sink (the other being the Errazuriz). Freaking gross. I have NEVER, on that note, tasted a good Chilean wine. They must exist, but I’ve sure never had one. Thought the Los Vascos might “bring some thunder” but really it was worse than most vin de table I’ve had.

Love this episode. Maybe I was too tired last night, but I laughed silly while watching. QOTD: it was a french wine which name I don’t even want to remember

Did you see my comments on cork’d about Palo Alto, $5.18 wine? It’s ridonculous. I bought the last two bottles off the shelf last night, but a friend told me where to find plenty, but for $5.99. Let me know if you can’t find it in NJ, and I’ll be happy to send you a couple.

QOTD: Vega Ferrera Crianza 2001, Somontano

I love Spanish wine and this Somontano region is all that bad, but this wine had a pure nose and palate of smoky garbage and unripe green pepper… PURE crap!

Good episode. Really liked how you went after this one, and even tried to salvage the positive, informative message at the end. Good.

QOTD: Hokkaido (Japan) Naigra Grape based wine- horrible.

Loved the episode. I felt your pain. I’ve had two of the four. Once.
Favorite worst wines are Franzia boxes, Woodbridge and there was something that called itself a wine that had a picture of a fish. It tasted more like fish.

QOTD: Probably Woodbridge or BV Coastal Cabernet.

I think you hit the nail on the head Gary when you said after tasting the Talus that there effort was part of the problem in the wine industry today. Why make a wine that’s no good just because you can. Why not concentrate on a few varitals and do them well instead of putting out an average to well below average portfolio.

Wow… tough episode!!! Hopefully you can do Pinot Noir again soon and actually give us some to try, haha.

QotD: Sutter Home Merlot, baby… had a nose of urinal mints and I would rather drink… um, pretty much anything.

Nice episode Gary, I am thinking about one day doing a Pinot Noir Challenge, a blind tasting consisting of: 1 or 2 Cali, 1 or 2 Oregon, 1 or 2 Burgandy. Depends on the number of people I get. If only one, would try to keep in the $20/btl price range. If two from each, have 1 15-20 dollars, and then the other 25+.

If I remember correctly, the Can-Am Connection was Rick Martel (aka “The Model”) and Tom Zenk. I just checked Wikipedia and Tito Santana and Martel were a tag team back in the day, but they were called Strike Force.

QOTD: The red champagne I had at the town “festival” in the Italian Alps between my junior and senior years of college. I don’t know what was in it – or why I kept drinking it – but it was very wrong on so many levels.

Louis Latour Pinot Noir 2005, 7.99

Love the glass!!! Reminds me of a great evening. Memorable episode–lowest ratings ever.

Worst under $5 wine was in France–Vin de Pays for the equivalent of 10 cents a bottle (in 1979). Industrial cleaning fluid.

I think it would have to be Ripple…..If you mix Ripple with Champagne you get Champipple….Don’t try it

My worst under $10 wine – and this lists for $9 at WL so I suppose the taste-challenged guest who brought it may have paid more – was the Corvo Red. I read somewhere they produce a million cases of this a year.