Cheers to Mistakes…On Purpose

Have you ever tried something you thought would turn out great but instead went horribly wrong? Like, exploding glass and streams of wine running through your garage wrong? We did! We learned mistakes don’t have to be considered bad things. In fact, mistakes can be something worthy of a toast.

Our big mistake happened just about a month before we were set to open the winery in our home. We boxed 1,000 bottles of freshly bottled Euphoria white wine and stacked them in the garage under our bedroom.

Just as we drifted off to sleep, rapid fire popping sounds jolted us awake. The Pop! Pop! Pop! of corks rocketing out of bottles and ricocheting off the ceiling sent us racing downstairs.

The mess looked even worse than it sounded. Corks were launching from boxes at the top of stacks. The boxes at the bottom were packed too tightly for corks to escape, so glass bottles were exploding from the pressure.

Randy made a technical error before bottling. The change allowed yeast to reactivate and ferment the wine more after bottling. This caused increased pressure inside the bottles. The boxes were stored near a commercial refrigerator which gave off a lot of heat and further increased the pressure. This led to the explosions.

Randy rushed to turn the AC to full blast and lower the room temperature. This helped get the situation under control.

We dodged flying corks, soggy boxes, and streams of wine on the floor to uncork bottles as fast as we could and pour the wine into a holding tank.

Among the chaos, Linda suddenly saw beauty in the situation. A cork escaped a bottle and a bubbly stream of white wine danced behind it. The scene reminded us of a holiday sparkling wine toast. So, we paused for a taste. It was a glorious taste! We had accidentally made a wonderful sparkling white wine.

The next day, we took a sample to our mentor, Dominic Strohlein of Big Creek Winery in Kresgeville. We asked him what we had done wrong. He tasted the new creation and replied that the only thing we did wrong was not putting it in a sparkling wine bottle.

So, we embraced the new wine and dubbed it Mistaké. The “é” adds a touch of funny flair in much the same way people call Target “tar-jay.”

Customers went crazy for the wine. We sold more than 1,000 bottles. Even after the original batch was gone, people continued to ask for it. So, we made it again. This time, we did it on purpose. Mistaké (On Purpose) is now one of our best sellers.

Next time you make a big mistake and everything looks like a mess, remember our story. Pause, take a breath, and try to see if there is some beauty in the situation.

You might just discover a reason to raise your glass.

Cheers!

Love,
Linda & Randy