The biggest disappointment: bottle variation

The hobby that some drink and call wine is for dreamers. Like all great pursuits, it's filled with wonderful surprises and equally fraught with twists and turns of unimaginable disappointment. Well, perhaps fraught with disappointment that borders on the significant.

There are many forms of disappointment. What ... Glad you asked.

There is finder disappointment A, when you try a great wine elsewhere, and then can't find that bottle to buy. There is finder disappointment B, where you think you have another bottle, but you can't seem to find it. There's buyer disappointment C, where you taste something 2 years after purchase and wish you had bought more. There's buyers disappointment D, where you struggle to find something and then later come across a cheaper, plentiful supply of it. There is drinker disappointment E, where you drink something and find it is still too young or even worse has passed its prime. There is buyers disappointment F, where a highly rated wine or expensive wine fails to live up to its reputation.

And now we start to get to the major leagues of despair. There is drink disappointment G, where you've been saving a one-of-a-decade bottles for a decade and it just isn't that good. And finally, in my book the biggest one of all, drinker disappointment H,when that amazing bottle you had somewhat recently is not even close the next time. Oh, the damn bottle variation.

Bottle variation encompasses all sorts of issues. Cork problems. Storage problems. Pairing problems. Dare I admit, taster problems, when say you're nasal passages are on vacation that day. Or just plain bad bottles. This is where I will publically lay all the blame. Argh.

Why am I rambling on about this? Because the second bottle of one my favorite wines in the last quarter, the Can Blau $15, was just terrible. I mean, shake my head bad. I'm not drinking much of it and that which I am is solely re tasting to see if it has gotten any better. What happened? This is a 2006 so it's not like age was an issue.

This is a somewhat reoccurring theme. I've had diametric bottles of Jacob's Creek 2003 Shiraz Reserve, the Bianchi 2002 Cabernet, Martin Weyrich 2003 Insieme, and the Marquis Philips 2004 Sarah's Blend all in the last 6 months. Some is my own doing. But most of it is that damn bottle variation. When is the country song about this topic getting released? I'm shocked it hasn't happened already.

It is a good thing I bought 5 more bottles of the Can Blau after the initial one. Here's a toast to the next bottle being better.