I thought I would get the ball rolling with this. Back in about 1994, I bought 6 bottles of Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne 1990 on original release from my liquor store (actually L.C.B.O. as I live in Ontario). It was $85.00 per bottle back then. Now, by reputation the 1990 vintage was excellent in Burgundy and Corton-Charlemagne is Louis Latour's flagship wine. I waited the requisite 10 years to let it age to perfection in a climate controlled storage unit. I took a bottle to a dinner party with friends and opened it. Label said 1990 but the cork said 1991! I was in shock to say the least. I telephoned some of the specialists whom I knew for over 10 years and they had never heard of this. I subsequently emailed Louis Latour and they admitted that a bottle mistake had been made. The wine was good BUT there is a huge difference between the two. You would not believe the logical backflips I was going through to have the wine in the bottle a 1990. (Can anyone say lawsuit?) Louis Latour has agreed to give me a replacement bottle. There is that old saying that Burgundy is a minefield and I feel that I have stepped on my first landmine. Would anyone else care to share some horror stories?

So you were drinking the '91 instead of the '90 last night?
...talk about having high class problems...
And you get another replacement bottle?
I want your life...

Just be thankful it wasn't 1985 Austrian late-harvest (many different vintners); they were adding diethylene glycol to sweeten them. Which it did, along with causing death and blindness (if in large enough quantity). The wine industry has always been full of quirky behaviour.

Now, rather ironically in some ways the 1991 red Corton is superior to the 1990 vintage (after aging), at least for some producers, and with surprisingly marked style differences between the vintages. It is the white that has a big difference between 1991 and 1990. The 1991 was very closed for its first 5 years but has opened up beautifully with age, while the 1990 was very forward. So you might actually have gotten a better wine.

Merlot.

I remember a few really bad wine hangovers from the late 60's and early 70's, but then again, in those days, I thought Boone's Farm Apple was a good wine.

In my earlier days I judged my wine not by whether the vintage was a good year but rather a good shift.

My comiserations to the OP.

In vino veritas,
Fredd

LOL. Yep, me too. Got bit hard more than once by the Mad Dog in college.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

It was considered high class if you put a fresh strawberry in the glass before you poured the Boones Farm over it. ^

My worst wine experience would have involved an empty Bali Hai jug.

Mad Dog reminds me of pledging - ouch - might have to skip dinner tonight!

Um, whenever I buy a product labeled as 'X' and open it up to find it's actually 'Y' I am displeased and want a replacement.

No doubt, life must be tough when you are having problems with a bottle of 1990 wine on a Monday night!

My "worst wine experiences" all tend to come the next morning...

OP is this you writing on this wine-lovers site [I can only get as far as the headline without a subscription that costs almost as much as your wine] about your experience, or did somebody else have the same problem in 2005?

http://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/yourturn050715

Let us know if you enjoy the vintage as much as Robert Parker does:

http://tinyurl.com/27wzmn

Yum (if that's the appropriate expression)!

In vino veritas,
Fredd

I am certain I had sent a copy of the correspondence to Jancis Robinson soon after it had happened. The incident took place about two years ago, not two nights ago. Two nights ago, I was enjoying Pichon Lalande 1989.

About five years ago, I tasted a real 1990 Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne as part of a Louis Latour Corton-Charlemagne vertical at the Sante Wine Festival at the Four Seasons in Toronto. It was the best of the wines tasted which included the 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1982. The only problem with the tasting was that there were no similarities between any of the wines. Had it been I blind tasting I would never have guessed that these were different vintages of the same wine. I'm not asking for a photocopy of one vintage to the next, but like a piece of music or a work of art, you recognize who it is by and that was not the case.

We did OTB(a wsj trademark) with some friends on sat. among others, a '55 bechyvelle that wife bought at 3 for $10 about 40 years ago, an '87 marque de murietta white reserva, a 90 chas montrechet(rouge) a 94 phelps insg., a 90 suiderout. sorry about the spelling. us old farts have all kinds of stuff hanging around.

Was this red or white. very little CC red out there, I did not think latour made one. holding 15 yo white burg is very risky. my 96&97's are ungood.

there is a very good chance that the bottle of being counterfit. If red, I would really contact LL and have him poke at the bottles. I have never had a problem like this, and have opened about 30,000 bottles in my days.