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I had a terrible wine the other night. Without naming names, let’s say it was a Viognier with 15% alcohol, from a region with little Viognier experience. Oh, and it had 5 years of bottle age. This wine was truly hard to swallow. In one moment it was hot, another sweet and then flabby. The melon flavors in this poor Viognier tried desperately to peek through the faults, but there was no hope.
Still, I had to finish my glass. And my friend agreed that it was bad, but he poured himself another glass, desperately trying to convince himself otherwise. He’d made the commitment and purchased it, after all. Even at just $9 a bottle, he felt compelled to consume.
I know the feeling. The logical part of my brain says: just because I’ve paid for something bad, doesn’t mean I endure further punishment by drinking it. But the thought of pouring wine down the drain pains me. With Passover this week, I’m inclined to think it’s my own Jewish guilt! I’m reminded of Sue’s post last week, about the sweat that goes into starting a winery. Pouring out a wine is a real insult to the producer, who’s invested tremendous time in crafting it, bad as it may be.
I’m curious what other people’s habits are. Do you treat your palate to just the finer things? Or have you been guilty of drinking plonk out of guilt?
At what point do you give up on a wine?
Filed under: Opinions and Commentary, Wine Tasting
11 Comments
April 1st, 2010 at 4:26:21 PM
Dump it and save your liver for the good stuff!
April 1st, 2010 at 4:48:07 PM
You know, sometimes something goes bad in the fridge before you get around to eating it, and you have to throw it out (with the spirit of my frugal grandmother looking over my shoulder ;). Sometimes a bottle of wine goes bad too. No reason to eat bad food or drink bad wine. (Though in this case, as a general rule I would be wary of 15% Viogniers no matter how old!)
April 1st, 2010 at 10:04:09 PM
Good topic Erika! I have come across this scenario many times, and for me it depends on when in the night this happens. If it is the first wine of the night to be sipped, I will typically vacu-vin it and throw it in the fridge. Sometimes things look better the next day. If there is still no improvement, I usually end up cooking with it. Nothing that calls for wine as a huge part of the recipe, but if I am making a clam sauce or just don’t want to use a lot of oil, I’ll substiture it with thewhite wine in question. Same with the red, I’ll toss some in the tomato sauce and it works nicely. However, if it is a bit later in the night when the taste buds are a bit shot, it may just go down the hatch as long as no one objects. After all…. it is still wine ;)
April 3rd, 2010 at 11:08:11 AM
The important thing to remember is that all forms of alcohol, even beautiful wines, are a form of poison. There is NO reason to subject yourself to the negative parts of the experience without ANY of the positive ones. Dump that bottle — and reach for another that is better.
April 5th, 2010 at 1:19:56 PM
Erika,
Try giving the wine another chance to shine by using it in spaghetti sauce or as the prime liquid in a slow-cooked meal or pot roast . My experience is that there are often volatiles that will evaporate off in the heating process that will render the wine pleasant to consume. And, if this works, it will eliminate your need for guilty because at least some of its value will have been redeemed! Bon apetite!
April 5th, 2010 at 2:43:22 PM
Thanks for all the tips on cooking with wine! Great points. Nobody should drink bad wine, but sometimes that pesky guilt gets in the way.
April 5th, 2010 at 3:34:06 PM
The best part about the pesky guilt…another glass of wine usually makes it go away.
To your poinrt, I pour a ton of wine down the drain; nearly always to the gasped astonishment of onlookers. Only my wine seems to be immune, primarily as I’ve been doing for about 10 years. When you work in the trade and taste as many wines as we do, it simply isn’t worth it to drink anything that doesn’t taste good to you.
Cheers!
April 6th, 2010 at 6:11:31 PM
If its bad…dump it! Wine is to be enjoyed and savoured. The only thing thats good about bad wine is, you know what not to buy next time!
April 12th, 2010 at 11:55:45 PM
You can always use it for cooking: braising or stewing or deglazing…
April 21st, 2010 at 4:33:16 AM
I know the grand thought is that we should cook with what we drink but c’mon,who really does that?
Using yucky wine (not something really wrong – take that back to the store) for cooking is a two-step process: 1. put it in the fridge (or not). 2. Decide after a week that it’s time to throw it out (like the sausages I bought last week and forgot about).
I’ve always though I should make vinegar in a barrel but so far that hasn’t happened (what would I do with a barrel of vinegar and should I do a white one and a red one so I can use the white for windows? Too complicated.)
As most of the wine I buy is under $10, it is not the end of the world – think of it as letting a $5 Starbucks grande cappucino go cold. And you can’t even marinate or clean the windows or kill dandelions with that.
May 13th, 2010 at 5:56:30 PM
I have become a firm believer that if the wine is so bad that there is no incentive to swallow it even just one more time – DUMP IT! Life is too short for crappy wine.