Bottling Wine: Paint by Numbers
Early but not so bright. With rain lingering from the previous night and more threatening to fall, a tarp had to be attached to the back of the bottling truck. I waited, kicking myself for showing up on time, when I knew there would be some kind of delay, in this first day of a four-day run.
Once everything was ready, the guys out back started loading empty bottles onto the conveyer belt– to flip through a circusy-looking rotating circle. Then the bottles made the trek to be filled with wine (2005 Thomas Fogarty Skyline) and further still to have a cork popped into the neck.
Here’s where I came in. I put the metal foils over the bottles, which would then be sealed to fit the neck more tightly. A very important job, readers and drinkers. Almost eight hours of this task, over and over. I sang along to Lucinda Williams and Rilo Kiley, Johnny Cash and Bright Eyes. Hopped from one foot to the other, twisted at the waist, closed my eyes when I could to keep them from crossing. When I’d think an hour had passed, I’d find it was only minutes. It’s all for the experience, it’s all for the blog, I told myself.
After me and the foils, it was then time for the wine labels. Pressure sensitive vs. glue, which come off more easily. Sometimes the machine would slap on two, and one of the technicians would scrape them off and put the bottle back in line. Apparently, one of the technicians also put Enya in the cd player, which I heard over my Tom Waits, bringing a moment of laughter into my otherwise dull day.
I think this tank was being cleaned out to be later filled with unoaked Chardonnay. It will be pumped into the truck and bottled when the Skyline is done, after 3500 or so cases. I’m not sure how many we did that day, with stops for breaks, a broken bottle, and little traffic jams, but at one point I counted 100 bottles go past me in about 4 minutes.
Have I mentioned I’m never doing this again? Until maybe the next time.
bottling wine, assembly line, Thomas Fogarty Skyline
….Farley Walker
February 28th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
that’s what you said last time! i enjoy your mocking tone towards something i know you love.
February 28th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Bottling day is the last day that a wine can be changed/adjusted/tweaked before it gets locked into a bottle. Once that cork gets squeezed down and forced into the neck of the bottle, that’s how the wine is going to be. It’s the day you send a wine into the world to seek its fortune.
I could wax lyrical some more about this, but hopefully you get the idea…:)
March 1st, 2007 at 11:08 am
I love this blog, behind the scenes at the winery…..backstage tours are always fascinating:) Oh and Farley, just think each bottle that you dressed with foil (with loving care of course!) is soon to be the first step in the next chapter of that bottle, tantalizing the wine lover in anticipation, and you got to seal in the secret - that’s pretty special if you ask me.