What is your most embarrassing memory?

[TxBrew]

I was just wondering what is your most embarrassing wine making memory. Making it issues? A friend tasting something that was not as expected?

 

[Arne]

Couldn't get a cork out of a bottle. Blamed it on left the bottles sit upright too long before laying on their sides. Not sure that was it,tho. Can't remember not getting the corks out of other bottles or even what batch it was from. Finally after breaking 2 corkscrews wound up destroying the cork and got to drink the wine. Arne.

 

[mainshipfred]

Don't really have a most embarrassing though asking a stupid question you know the answer to but just wasn't thinking at the time is up there.

 

[winemaker81]

Don't really have a most embarrassing though asking a stupid question you know the answer to but just wasn't thinking at the time is up there.

And you realize the answer 0.0001 seconds after clicking Send ......

Been there, done that!

 

[balatonwine]

i am curious to see how far this thread actually goes with honest reporting of embarrassing moments. Given the almost universal online "Instagram" world we seem to live in, where one only shows their best (cough... cough... ) side.

Mistakes? -- Harrumph... Mistakes do not happen (especially if you want to build your channel -- and today that is what most people do, so by corollary, mistakes do not happen. To error is human, but to be human is interlerable to the ever present "like" algorithm.)

For example, I would never admit to that time I left the spigot open on a barrel when racking wine, so that wine started spilling on the floor. Oh, no. That was a planned event. The floor clearly needed a wine wash.... ehem....

 

[Kraffty]

Before starting to make wine I seldom drank any. When bottling my very first batch I syphoned off a couple of ounces into a tiny juice glass and sipped it as I bottled that first bottle. I did the same during the second, third and so on until I finished. I remember standing on the patio holding an empty glass, staring at nothing in particular, then doing the same in the living room, then the patio again until my wife suggested I go take a nap. I woke around 6:30 in a panic not sure what day it was or whether it was in the AM or PM (it was pm only a couple of hours later on a saturday). I get to hear that story at least once or twice a year, usually around crush time.

I now know the difference between wine and beer......

 

[winemaker81]

I now know the difference between wine and beer......

Reminds me of a friend, primarily a beer drinker. One night we went out and he tried Alabama Slammers.

Like you and the wine, he drank 'em like beer. He got religion that night, praying for hours to the God of the Porcelain Bowl. We were in college, and his grandmother & aunt were visiting the next day, taking us to lunch. He appeared to be perfectly fine, but when their car was leaving the parking lot he turned to me and said, "please kill me." He should have gone into acting, as even I didn't realize how hungover he was.

My stories? Drinking stories? Yup, got enough and not gonna repeat 'em if it were the topic! Wine making stories?

Like @mainshipfred, I've posted questions that I should have known the answer to, and like @balatonwine, I've failed to pay attention while racking.

Last year when my son & I were racking, I pulled out my phone to take a picture, and bobbled it. PLUNK! Right into 20 gallons of wine. We quickly fished the phone out and it was surprisingly fine.

 

[TxBrew]

@winemaker81

Last year when my son & I were racking, I pulled out my phone to take a picture, and bobbled it. PLUNK! Right into 20 gallons of wine. We quickly fished the phone out and it was surprisingly fine.

The phone? The wine? or both?

 

[winemaker81]

The phone? The wine? or both?

Yes.



Both, although my immediate concern was the wine.

 

[mainshipfred]

This is not my story but an embarrassing one for someone. I was helping at a commercial winery and at lunch they pulled out a bottle they called Ode de Mark. Seemed legit so I didn't ask any questions. Well evidently the assistant was standing on T bins punching down when he fell in. Needless to say his name was Mark.

 

[sour_grapes]

This is not my story but an embarrassing one for someone. I was helping at a commercial winery and at lunch they pulled out a bottle they called Ode de Mark. Seemed legit so I didn't ask any questions. Well evidently the assistant was standing on T bins punching down when he fell in. Needless to say his name was Mark.

Eau de Mark, perhaps?

 

[mainshipfred]

Eau de Mark, perhaps?

I kind of knew that wasn't right but could not google the correct spelling, thanks! BTW, that's the first time in a while you corrected my spelling or grammar, you must be slipping!

 

[sour_grapes]

I kind of knew that wasn't right but could not google the correct spelling, thanks! BTW, that's the first time in a while you corrected my spelling or grammar, you must be slipping!

You can decide if I have become inured or simply acculturated!

 

[Bmd2k1]

So far after just over 1year making vino...

Racking into a bulk aging 20L Speidel & forgetting to set the spigot in the closed position :-/ Only lost half a bottle or so...but still. Lesson learned.

Cheers & Happy Thanksgiving ✌

 

[JohnT]

I visited our family winery in Hungary for the first time.

My cosine had us sample 10 different wines from these huge wooden vats. For each wine, he went up a ladder and skimmed a "sample" off of the top inch. He then came down the ladder and filled up 6 ounce glasses. Keep in mind, he did this 10 times.

I have heard the alcohol will rise to the top in large containers. I have never really noticed this at the scale of my production (500 liter tanks) but apparently in much larges vessels, this can happen. All I know is that I have NEVER been that drunk in my life.

To make a long story short, I spent the rest of that trip apologizing.

P.S. this was not really my fault. When my cosine had me taste his wine, I did not want to insult him by refusing a taste or dumping out an unused portion. Really, I was just trying to keep up family relations. No, Really.. Family relations.

 

[RevA]

Coin toss between these two.
I used to live in a warmer part of the country where a lot of Catawba grapes grow and usually made 10-20 gallons of Catawba wine each year. Mostly off dry, one year I forgot to stabilize before I sweetened and bottled the wine. Two weeks later the corks started popping, kept on popping for days.
Option B I was planning on making a super cheap mead - mega grocery store brand honey ect. I did not know the one company sold honey and golden syrup in similar containers. So I bought 5lb of "honey" and started making mead. While I'm busing mixing my wife comes into my workshop and asks what on earth I'm making that has that much golden syrup in it. So not a mead, bit rather a type of sugar wine...

 

[winemaker81]

So not a mead, bit rather a type of sugar wine...

How did it turn out?

 

[RevA]

How did it turn out?

It was drinkable, but was a bit bland.

 

[pete1325]

After a couple years of this hobby, I let a cousin taste a bottle, I thought wasn't bad, he took a sip looked me straight in the eye and said, if you could bottle the taste of *** that's what it would taste like. we still laugh.

 

[Boatboy24]

After a couple years of this hobby, I let a cousin taste a bottle, I thought wasn't bad, he took a sip looked me straight in the eye and said, if you could bottle the taste of *** that's what it would taste like. we still laugh.

We won't ask how he knew...