Skunky Wine...Yuck!
 

My DH and I had a disagreement the other day and so, as an apology, he came home with my two, favorite foods...wine and vanilla ice cream. (Not to be ingested together at the same time, mind you.) The ice cream was a lovely treat, but when he opened the bottle of Pinot Noir...OMG...I could smell it from all the way from across the room. It was "skunky!" I took one sip and could not drink any more of it. It was soooooo bad. It had the smell of rubbing alcohol, mixed with rotten Ripple. (Remember Ripple?) There was absolutely no body to the wine...very thin and watery... just plain awful.

I didn't say a thing, because I didn't want to start another fight. I just left my glass there and quietly went to bed. I know that he paid a fair sum of money for it and it wasn't his fault. He even picked a local label that we have bought many times before. This was just an off bottle. I noticed that the next morning, he hadn't drank much of his either. I suppose that he could take it back to the store, but he's too embarrassed to do that, so we'll just let it go.

Have you ever had a skunky bottle of wine?

hmmm. no haven't, but would have taken it back myself. They should know their stock isn't up to par.

Yes, for sure we've opened a bad bottle or 2 in our time - even from a *good* winery. I would definitely return the bottle, it's really just a pretty small percentage that get's 'corked' - I'm sure they would be gracious and understand.

I could understand not bothering to return a cheap wine but if I paid a fair amount of money for it, you can be darned sure, I'd return the bottle and if they don't want to give you another bottle or a refund, I'd tell them they've lost a customer.

I feel that they won't know to fix a problem if not brought to their attention.

Back to the store it goes for replacement. Last week we stopped for breakfast before doing our grocery shopping. My “over easy” eggs ran all over my plate. How do I eat 2 eggs when the whites aren’t even cooked ? Waitress wouldn’t look my way for a long time (only 1 other table in the whole place was occupied). Finally I get the replacements & the rest of my breakfast was cold.

For many years, we made our own wine from kits or from pure juice. One batch of very expensive pure juice Monte Pulcianno was off. It tasted corked from the very first bottle. Well, we couldn't return the 'fermented juice' so I cooked with some very good wine for quite a long time. (BTW the corky taste does go away in the cooking process).

I don’t know what would be embarrassing about letting the store know the bottle was bad. Seems they would want to let the distributor know. I would consider it doing a good deed so they are
able to determine why and fix it

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I totally get it. If this had been a big box store, or even something that we ordered online, I would insist that we return it, or get a refund. I'd even go through the process for my DH, so he wouldn't have to deal with it. But....this is our only, local, "bread and butter" store for many, miles around. The owners and clerks have been through some seriously rough, personal stuff over the last couple of years, so I say, "let sleeping dogs lie." They've also let some things slide for us on occasion. This bottle also came from a local vinter and they usually produce some incredible wines. This is a very, small town, after all and we look out for each other.

That being said, I may have some opportunity to let the vintner know that we received an off bottle. I think that they would want to know. (Although, I think that they probably already know the quality of that vintage.)