Large Format Bottling

Because Bottling is pretty much everyone's least favorite time of the year.  I'm starting with a picture I took this Sunday of Bodega Bay.  I was in Bodega Bay picking up a table from Craigslist.  Turns out it's not nearly as far from Napa as I thought it was.  Only took an hour to get to the water.  I need to make a point to leave Napa more often.

Also in un-bottling related updates: there was a camera crew filming a video of how we do cork sensory.  They filmed me setting up a sensory and then talking about the process.  It was really uncomfortable to be on the other side of the camera but I'm looking forward to seeing what professional cameras and editing capture.

So Bottling the 2010 vintage:

Bottling is my least favorite time of year because it means work starts everyday at 5:30am (and there are a few unluckier souls than I, that start at 4:30am).  They are long days and monotonous because it's the same thing every hour of everyday for weeks and weeks and weeks.

 We spent the last 4 weeks bottling all the 750ml, 375ml and 1.5L bottles.  This last week (the fifth straight of bottling) we tackled the 3L, 6L and 9L bottles.  The bottle on the left is a regular 750ml and the ones on the right are 3L.

The large format bottles can't go on the bottling line because they are too large and we make too few of them to make it worth it.  So we bottle them by hand.  The first step is to inspect the glass for defects.  Then two bottles at a time are turned upside down where they are first rinsed with water and then sparged with nitrogen to displace the air inside.

The wine travels from the tank (background) to this small filler.  Here Pablo is checking the filling speed since this is the morning start up.


And then one by one the bottles are moved from the table to the filler.



We can fill 8 bottles at a time.  With our normal line for 750mls bottles we fill 20 bottles at a time.  Then we  check the fill height with a ruler and send the bottle to be corked.

The bottling line for our 750ml bottles has a corker head with 4 jaws so we can cork 4 bottles at the same time.  For the larger bottles we have a single jaw that we use to manually insert the corks.

It takes at least 2 people to insert the cork.  One person to make sure the bottle is centered and has a good seal with the jaw (otherwise the device has trouble pulling a vacuum before inserting the cork) and then a second person to pull the lever that compresses the cork to insert it.

Bottling is done for the year and now the lab is busy with grape and juice samples.  And by "busy" I mean "sticky".

-L