Disappointing 'special' bottles

My personal cellar is merely a closet. Granted, just the fact that the closet is filled with wine instead of shoes is nothing short of a miracle. This is not a grand closet. Not a walk-in, not temperature controlled, not anything special; just a closet with a little bit of California Closets for good measure. There's not a ton of room for wine in this closet, so I have to be careful with what I buy, and carefully maintain a proper ratio between the "drink me now" pile and the "I'm too expensive to drink now" pile.

Normally we're very good about sticking to the "drink me now" but, as overachievers with insane day jobs, Nick and I will occasionally venture into the "expensive" pile. Last week,this happened twice. Both bottles were highly anticipated ones, and both bottles disappointed us to a huge degree.

I'm not going to name the bottles, but I'm sure you can at least figure out where they came from. One is made at a Foster's Group winery where the winemaker just won winemaker of the year. The other was a expensive, slightly oddball bottle from an Aussie winery with witty labels. Neither delivered what we expected, and both had us wondering seriously if either bottle merited its $50+ pricetag.

It's the great paradox of wine, right? How to know if it is good? A $10 bottle may taste better than a $30 bottle. The factors are too numerous to list. But I have to ask, what have been some highly anticipated and highly disappointing bottles for you? Let me know and we'll put them on the "Read Me" list.