Bob Becker wrote:
> I was just wondering...
> Does anyone have any wine making horror stories?

I'm sure watermelon wine will come up in this conversation a lot- I
only tried making it once, and couldn't stand the smell after the
second day of fermentation. I followed through with it anyway, and
gave a bottle of it to a fellow who kept complaining that my wine was
always too sweet. He admitted that it was dry enough, but I assume
that he (like me whenever I checked to see if it had improved with age)
poured most of it down the sink.

When I just started making wines, I discussed the art with my mother
(who started her first batch shortly before I was born, which my sister
claims explains a lot about me). We pulled out a number of her bottles
of wine, including a 20-year old bottle labelled "Rowanberry Wine".
Absolutely beautiful- nice, slightly orange colour, perfectly clear,
nicely balanced...until it hit the back of the throat, and the berries
could be tasted. I could not get the taste of mountain ash (a berry
that I never thought was edible) out of my mouth for hours, despite
tasting numerous other wines that night.