Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

What is the greatest bottle of wine... you ever broke?

I'm reminded of the story of Francois and his 1900 Margaux. One of the legendary bottles, practically priceless. And it fell in his cellar and broke on the floor. It is on the cover of his book.

For me, it was a 2002 Roumier Bonne Mares. I was unloading bottles of wine from an auction in front of my apartment in Paris, and the rain was coming down. It was an absolutely miserable day. And many of the single bottles were in flimsy cardboard boxes from the auction house. One of the boxes with a single bottle of wine fell onto the street into a puddle and broke. I reached down to open the cardboard box and to my horror it was the Roumier BM. I could smell the beautiful wine as it mixed in with the rainwater.

Any others?

Fortunately for me it wasn't a bottle of wine but a bottle of bourbon. Earlier this year I was up in Maine at Andy Jepeal's house along with Michael Malinoski and I opened a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon while we sat around a fire pit. The winds came up and blew it right right off the table and smashed on the patio before any of us had a pour. All I can say is it smelled wonderful.

Tim,

Touch wood we've been lucky. I've certainly had shelves in the wine cellar collapse creating a panic with bottles crashing down but luckily never lost a single bottle then or ever thankfully.

Hopefully all is well in Seattle and we wish you a Very Merry Christmas.

1971 Bourgogne Barolo Riserva. A birth year special, stacked temporarily on the floor in an overflow pile. I went to move a bottle on top of it and it slipped a little, clanging glass on glass and the old brittle glass of the 71 cracked like an egg.

About 10 years ago, I dropped a bottle of 1990 Haut Brion on the concrete floor of the basement - so sad but there was a fabulous aroma wafting around for a couple weeks. Also lost a bottle of Alsatian 1990 SGN in a similar manner. That was sad but not anywhere as bad as the Haut Brion.

Chris Bublitz

There was also a collapse of some shelving a couple months ago but only lost one bottle - a nice Champagne worth about $80, not a major disaster.

Chris Bublitz

Winona Chief wrote:About 10 years ago, I dropped a bottle of 1990 Haut Brion on the concrete floor of the basement - so sad but there was a fabulous aroma wafting around for a couple weeks. Also lost a bottle of Alsatian 1990 SGN in a similar manner. That was sad but not anywhere as bad as the Haut Brion.

Chris Bublitz

Oh man, that is brutal!

Did not broke many bottles in my life, keeping my fingers crossed.

But let say that last January, a corked/dead 1986 Chateau d'Yquem was even worst than breaking a bottle of that would have been in good shape.

Merry Christmas Tim. Bien hâte de te revoir bientôt.

Nic

Merry Christmas all, from rainy/sunny/snowy Seattle!

I’ve been pretty lucky in this respect, but did drop a couple of years ago a Gonon St. Joseph, which are getting harder to find and more expensive. The elixir ended up all over the garage.

Merry Christmas/happy holidays everyone.

I dropped a bottle of 1990 La Conseillante which I stupidly put in a card box box on the floor of the cellar in Menton. Just as I walked out of the cellar the bottle fell through the soggy bottom of the box and slashed on the ground. The the waft of the aroma was purely sensational, but still a tragic moment.

The worst so far, knock on wood, was a single bottle of 2007 Larose Trintaudon which I had just purchased around the corner and was about to put away.

Mine was a magnum of Grand Cru Burgundy; I do not remember what, but I think it was from Jadot. Insurance paid me the replacement value--I dropped the bottle when moving wine from my flooded wine room in order to prepare for the restoration and State Farm accepted the claim.

Our basset hound body wagged a bottle of 95 Pichon Baron onto the concrete floor, breaking it. And I once had a 96 Lynch Bages get smashed by movers, which considering how many bottles were moved, was a relatively small casualty rate I suppose. Although I've always had the nagging suspicion that they helped themselves to a few bottles, since I've never been able to find a few items ever since.

But lordy, the dogs have broken a lot of glasses over the years, sweeping coffee tables clear...

After numerous near misses with a concrete cellar floor, I had them put in a cork floor when my current cellar was built which, in addition to being thematically apropos and condensation resistant, has the advantage of letting dropped bottles bounce.

2011 Clos Saron Lower Block PN got smashed at my locker. I saw it wobble but could not react in time.

I am impressed, Patrick. I knew you consumed a lot of wine, but having enough corks to cover the floor of your wine cellar is at a different level than I imagined. Despite many more years than you of drinking wine and saving corks, Lucie and I have barely enough corks for a small cork garden by our front patio.

The greatest: a magnum of 1988 Yquem. Sticky, nasty and impossible to clean.

Runner up a bottle of Heitz Martha’s 1976. I dropped it in the luggage area of White Plains airport. There was a dog sniffing for drugs, that got discombobulated by the smell. His handler asked me if I had deliberately dropped the bottle to confuse his dog. I showed him the invoice, he gasped and I left

I’ll risk jinxing myself by saying that I’ve never broken a bottle of wine. I did break about 15 Riedel glasses all in one fell swoop when a shelf collapsed.

DavidG wrote:I’ll risk jinxing myself by saying that I’ve never broken a bottle of wine. I did break about 15 Riedel glasses all in one fell swoop when a shelf collapsed.

That's impressive David. Knock on wood but I have yet to break anything too badly.

Worst was a $60 bottle of 2015 Xavier Monnot Clos de Chenes at home that did not get reimbursed.

But just last week at my storage facility, because of my overstuffed locker, a bottle of 2008 Elio Grasso Gavarini Chiniera came falling out while moving bottles around. Luckily I have a zero deductible for broken bottles there and was fully reimbursed already.

Not broken by me but by FedEx. I received a case with 11 bottles of assorted swill and 1 gem, 1982 Lafleur. The cardboard box was stained deep red. Only one bottle broke, can you guess which one?

When we lived in the condo, I had a Eurocave built into the kitchen and stacked magnums of wine in the bottom section where you would normally stand bottles up. At any rate, one day I was inventorying the contents of the fridge and as I was picking up one of the stacked magnums it slipped and the bottom of the bottle made direct contact with the the middle of a magnum of 2004 Cos d’Estournel which was underneath and it broke, and then proceeded to leaked everywhere. Luckily I guess, only one of the mags broke.

Not a broken bottle (knock wood) but went to the cellar and found a stain on the rack...the cork had fallen into our lone bottle of 1961 Petrus. Got on the phone to a few nearby winos and shared the remainder. It was still really amazing, so the cork must have failed very recently!

I also had a bottle of Mouton (probably 1982) that when we opened it around age ten was discovered to have never had a cork! The bottle was opened because the fill was a bit low for its age, but the capsule held the wine in and was actually enough to keep the contents in decent shape.

Dropped an 82 GPL in the storage lockers. Hit the concrete flooring from 6 feet and immediately smelled wonderful.

Grabbed the neck of a bottle of something 1915 in a cardboard box and the neck came right off the rest of the bottle.

In shipment from Europe: imperial of port (newer vintage) and 47 Cheval (bought to make a profit - I did not).

MP

While reorganizing the cellar a 375ml of 2016 Cos fell from the top shelf and smashed. It splattered all over the floor and stained bottles on the bottom racks . I guess I'm been lucky up to now but it made quite the mess.

Well I’ve dropped a handful or so including:

2009 Chateau Clinet Pomerol, and I had to get the wool and silk Persian carpet cleaned too
1995 Chateau Lagrange St Julien
2004 Remoissenet Meursault Genevrieres
A few NV Champagnes - and those heavy bottles make a mess when they shatter
Numerous Australian wines of which some were quite valuable

In the latter case one or more cats once decided to play on one of the wine racks leading to multiple smashed bottles being knocked to the floor. They at least didn’t do it again after the shock of breaking glass and me yelling at them.

I've never cracked a bottle of wine.

JimHow wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 4:22 pm I've never cracked a bottle of wine.

Well I said that until two of the cats I had at the time (there were a total of four then) decided to play chasings over the wine racks.
At least they didn't knock the whole rack over but some fairly good wines were smashed.

cheers
Mark

Claudius2 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 08, 2022 4:00 pm Well I’ve dropped a handful or so including:

2009 Chateau Clinet Pomerol, and I had to get the wool and silk Persian carpet cleaned too
1995 Chateau Lagrange St Julien
2004 Remoissenet Meursault Genevrieres
A few NV Champagnes - and those heavy bottles make a mess when they shatter
Numerous Australian wines of which some were quite valuable

In the latter case one or more cats once decided to play on one of the wine racks leading to multiple smashed bottles being knocked to the floor. They at least didn’t do it again after the shock of breaking glass and me yelling at them.

Surprised to read that a Champagne bottle would break. They are much sturdier than most still wine bottles. Though I suppose a fall onto cement or if it hits on a seam… yeah the internal pressure could really make for a widely distributed mess.

David
Yeah the Champagne bottles are heavy but Irving the mad lilac Burmese was over 8kg (about 18lbs) at the time. The bottles didn’t stand a chance. He also destroyed a few Italian wines too. Just remembered that, but he passed away at an old age several years ago. His partner in crime was a seal point Birman who was incredibly agile and lighter on his feet.

The Burmese also destroyed a few Riedel glasses - he was like a small bulldozer at the time. He did have some redeeming features though as he was very comical in his own way.

Cheers
Mark