The wines you enjoyed on vacation seem "DOA" (dead on arrival) when you buy them back home. Why?
How good a wine tastes depends a lot on food and mood. A wonderful meal heightens our appreciation of a wine. Ambience also plays an important role. Compatible friends, exotic surroundings, being relaxed on a vacation all contribute to how you perceive a wine.

So food and mood can contribute to the enjoyment of a wine far beyond its actual worth. The same wine will probably taste quite ordinary when you open the bottle at the end of a pressure-filled day over an average meal.

Another factor is that some wine importers do not ship their less expensive wines in refrigerated containers over the ocean. Thus these wines could bake in the sun and become "cooked" and when you open the bottle the wine will seem flat and lifeless.

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