The 6 Worst Wine Disasters

When wine loses against gravity, fire and mother nature

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The 6 Worst Wine Disasters

What do you think of when you hear the words "wine disaster?" Red wine on a light carpet? A corked bottle? Stained teeth? Those things all suck, but not nearly as much as the six wine disasters you are about to learn about.

From millions of dollars worth of wine destroyed, to arson or pesky pests, there's no shortage of disasters in wine history.

Which do you think is the worst?

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Tags: Jesse Chemtob, wine news, Commentary

Comments

m robinson

78025 0

How about the earthquake in Chile last year that I understand destroyed 14,000,000 cases of Wine? I was there the next month and saw so many crumpled tanks and broken barrels.

MLR

Nov 16, 2011 at 1:54 PM
Lodi Brad

176242 201

You left out Prohibition. It set the US back for decades.

Nov 16, 2011 at 2:39 PM
Gavilan-
Vineyards

Hand of Snooth Voice of Snooth

517320 40

You may also want to add the French to the list of Antifreeze users to enhance their shitty wines.

Nov 16, 2011 at 4:30 PM
Atwater

32121 5

How about the fact that NY State has refused the opportunity to sell wine in Food stores and thus will lose $300,000,000.00 in new revenue the first year?

Nov 16, 2011 at 4:30 PM
bikerb1

338370 0

I bought 9 bottles from a winery in Hilton Head, SC....it all went bad and they made is good. So disappointed as it was really good at the tasting. Corks sucked in and wine ran out. The winery was excellent to deal with and made a full refund. My 9 and my friends 6. I would definitely buy there again.

Nov 16, 2011 at 4:52 PM
David-
Wright

974529 0

Pity they could not find pictures of the right bottles - that is not REMOTELY like a bottle of 1787 Chateau Margaux, for example. There were lots of photos of it at the time; the one that was dropped was not the only bottle still existing. A 1797 Chateau Lafite from the same source was bought by MOMA in New York USA, where it was put on display - with the result that the cork dried out and the wine was ruined.

Nov 16, 2011 at 5:53 PM
dmcker

Hand of Snooth

125836 6,218

Good hook, and good examples. Would've been interesting to see figures for the value of the phylloxera disaster at the time (as well as the opportunity to ship American root stock over for replacement). Also excellent examples from the comments thread. What about the losses to Italian (and French) wine business from the use of different grapes than those controlled/labeled, subsequently busted by the tax police and others? Etc....

Nov 16, 2011 at 8:30 PM
Joanne-
Lessner

974607 0

I was so inspired by that shattered 1787 Chateau Margaux at the Four Seasons that I spun out an entire novel based on that event, PANDORA'S BOTTLE! http://tinyurl.com/6l8v3v4

Nov 16, 2011 at 10:28 PM
Sedimentbl-
og

546548 155

...and then there was that time we knocked over a glass...

http://www.sedimentblog.com

Nov 17, 2011 at 6:26 AM
aylwin-
forbes

481651 14

I've heard of European wine lakes but not one in Sheboygan before.

Nov 17, 2011 at 12:51 PM
aylwin-
forbes

481651 14

Referencing the 1787 Margaux, was not that one of the suspect bottles associated with Hardy Rodenstock? For sure he was the "discoverer" of the stash of "Jefferson 1787 Lafites" that caused such a stir, and cost several people a lot of money.

Nov 17, 2011 at 12:54 PM
Doc Vino

975621 0

I know it is meaningless in comparison to the loss of human lives but Windows on the World had supposedly the 5th largest collection in the US.

Nov 18, 2011 at 3:23 PM