3 months from now, what should I do with my wine?

[Wycen]

Mostly I feel the need to post in this new "Media + Off Topic" forum. It is new and scary

Last quarter, which was only 2 weeks ago, I took a chemistry class for an upper division science requirement - The Making of Wine. I do not know why they had to call it - The Making of Wine. Would it not be easier to say and write -Winemaking?

We actually went thru the process of making wine. However, certain issues, like a 10 week quarter and the fact we are college students, mostly non-science majors absolutely affected the final product.

The events of class deserve their own story, but I don't want to get the professor in trouble, but man oh man, what a trip. From a sign language interpreter, to wine tasting, a dead dog, in class ranting about annoying students, and the fuzzy? line between vinegar and "wine" this certainly was the most surreal class I've taken.

In 3 to 6 months, "bottle shock" will no longer be a worry and I'll be able to open my bottle of wine. However, do I really want to open my own hand made wine or do I want to keep it as a nick nack to talk about years from now?

Our final tasting revealed the horrible quality of our batch. It tasted like ear wax. The question is will it get better, or will it finish its conversion to acetic acid? Can I salvage it by using it for sangria, or not?

Obviously, if I never open it, I don't have to worry about how it tastes, though it will certainly be spoiled 10 years from now.

So, what would you do?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Sell it on ebay as an homage to Tom Patterson (a supporting character in "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin," famous for his revolting home-made wines).

 

[Mark]

3 months from now, what should I do with my wine?

Put a cork in it?



I think I'd shelf it forever, even taping a warning note to the bottom about it's possible dangers for posterity. Props spur great stories and having that on the shelf means people will ask about it and allow you to launch into the tales from that class. Get rid of the evidence and you have to bring it up yourself, which is not as much fun and even less interesting. It'll seem forced. Even if it turns out to be passable, even good, wine, the value lost is far more significant. As long as it is corked, it might be the greatest wine ever produced by man, for all anyone truly knows.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Christen* a child using it..


wait..


*like you would a new boat.

 

[LightPhoenix]

I took a similar course on fermentation as part of my bioengineering degree. While practically useful in the biochem/pharm industry today, the most memorable part was making beer. It was about as horrible as the wine sounds. However, I still have some great stories from the class (for example, everyone taking the final a little drink). I'd keep it corked and use it as a conversation piece.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Recount the tale of its creation in inscrutable spidery script upon the label, also giving it an ominous name and noting the vintage year. Keep it corked, and let it sit upon a shelf to collect dust.

After your death, it will be found and consumed by someone considerably less wise than you. After they awaken from their hallucination-troubled coma, they will spend months deciphering the notations you left on the now yellowed and faded label, and a made-for-tv movie (and subsequent novelization) shall be made that glorifies your life posthumously.

 

[Wycen]

Hah!

Part of the class dealt with wine labels and so we actually have a "proper" label thanks to a contest. It's called "Furlough Merlot" vintage 2008, 11% alcohol by volume *.






* = Well, due to certain "issues" we'd be lucky if it is that high, but legally the alcohol content can be within 1.5 percent of the number on the label.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I see... In which case you must recount your tale upon a fine sheet of platinum, carefully rolled up and placed in the bottle itself. And it must be written in iambic pentameter.



More seriously, I'm with most of the others: it'd make an interesting conversation piece in years to come. OTOH, I personally would be dying with curiosity about it, even knowing it's likely a bit, umm, off. Solution: stay in touch with someone else in the class and sample off their bottle, keeping yours intact!

 

[Hand of Evil]

My brother put it up for his grand-kids...the label was it's history of being made and some of the events that were happening at the time.

Gee, that was closing on 20 years, wonder if he still has it.

 

[Quantum]

Put a cork in it, wrap it in duct tape, and bury it in a time capsule for a thousand years.