Coonawarra Merlot vs South Australian clean skin

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Yep, two bottles down the sink!  When buying at auction you only know the vineyard, grape variety, region and vintage and this looked great on paper but reading the label after purchase clearly states drink before 2009 and they don’t show you that in the auction details!

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The gamble with auctions means you must be prepared to lose and you must know your wine, but taking a punt on occasion has delivered wine of awesome unexpected quality…  overall the experience has been positive and that’s the fun part….  On this occasion the clean skin Shiraz won!

I am sitting here now drinking the cheap clean skin shaking my head in disbelief… BUGGER!

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74 comments

  1. Apparently there is nothing governing truth-in-advertising? So theoretically, one might suppose you were bidding on the ‘nice’ bottles, and not what they actually contained? I think I might be a little miffed…depending on how much $$$ I wasted…nice to see you taking it so well….

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  2. Is there a reason to dump it instead of saving some for cooking wine? I save my old wine and am now very worried that my past dinner guests were polite and are full of poo.

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  3. Tears are streaming down my cheeks for what could have been…. I guess it’s probably pay back for all the times you’ve gotten a steal:)

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  4. I lament for your loss. One never knows how a wine has been stored prior to your purchase from an estate, an auction or even a retailer. I just hope that it was not a large monetary loss for you.

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    • I didn’t pay much but it was the expectation plummeting through the floor that got to me… I have opened many wines that have be stewed or left upright and the cork crumbles from drying out… Its all part of it, the highs and lows.

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  5. I would have cried as I poured it down the sink. Can’t say that I have ever bought wine at auction (more like the local bottle shop) but I do occasionally visit wineries.

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  6. That would have sucked Stu! Luckily the wines from auction are usual ok to exceptional so some bad ones are just the price to pay. I am also starting to think you get what you pay for too, although there’s still some gems in the really cheap lots.

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  7. LOL! I used pour icky wines down the sink. But then I learned that if you drink a whole bunch and then go back to the icky bottle, it’s not so bad after all. (Except for the rotten vinegar or moldy ones. Ew.)

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  8. Yay for the SA cleanskin saving the day. Grabbing a case of Mclaren Vale shiraz (cleanskin) this week from a winemaker I know and based on past experience it will be very drinkable.
    I only ever cook with wine I am prepared to drink, so if the wine is off, it goes down the sink as sad as that is

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  9. I also always use “old” red wine (and all the white! ick) in cooking and added about 250 ml of a cab/merlot to my pot roast earlier this week for a smokier flavour…now I’m wondering if it had gone bad as the meat didn’t taste right to me. The veg were fine, so I thought it was just the wrong blend to use. shoot! something to watch for next time.

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  10. I reckon clean skins are fine. Perhaps I have no class, but I reckon their fine. I don’t know if they have a good reputation or a poor one, though.

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      • Damn, I never knew that.

        Now I see it differently. I thought it was surplus, they just had too much of the good drop & rather than pour it down the sink, sold it cheap. Thanks Olympian Stuart. At least Australia’s are holding up well though.

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