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Dugger

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I made a kit with my brother in law and his son back in Feb, 1999. This was before I started keeping records so I don't know what kind of kit it was, other than it was probably an inexpensive one - we made a lot of California Connoisseur back then. The label we put on says Fruit Wine and it has an exquisite bouquet of cherries. It tasted horrible when we made it and every bottle I tried over the years had the great bouquet but still tasted horrible. I found a bottle a few years back that had been kept in an unheated building for about 5 years and with all the freeze/thaw cycles, the cork was almost pushed half way out. Well, I finally opened that bottle tonight and it still has the exquisite cherry nose but the taste is actually quite nice - smooth, mellow, a hint of cherries and slightly sweet. I was surprised and pleased. I have one more bottle yet to open and will save it for a while yet but this one was kept in normal conditions so it will be interesting to see if it has changed as well.
This was an inexpensive kit and we did not add extra sulphites in those days so this comes as a pleasant surprise.
Just thought I'd share that with you - I'm sure many of you have similar experiences.
 
Funny, I had one just like that with little sulfites taste great after years when it should have gone south. I wasnt doing any testing at all then so maybe I added way to many sulfites then and that saved it. On the other hand I opened a bottle of a cab that should have been fine and it wasnt at all. Im hoping it is just going through a phase as it was very good about 1 1/2 years ago and I still have 4 more of those left.
 

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