#39: Preparing for Bottling
July 1, 2024
We bottle our GlenLyon wines two times each year: the first time in March for our earlier maturing wines: Rosé, Viognier and Chardonnay. Our second will happen this August when we will bottle five red wines plus our Estate Port. After almost four decades of making wine and 75+/- bottlings, you’d think that bottling day would be a slam-dunk, correct? Nope. Before wines go into bottles, there are a multitude of tasks that I have to accomplish, none of which have to do with winemaking. I have learned over the years that the success of bottling day completely depends on how well I have prepared. Here’s what’s on my list before August rolls around….
Filtration and Bottling Trucks
Immediately after last year’s March bottling, I reached out to the cross-flow filtration and bottling companies to set the following year’s March and August dates. (Cross-flow filtering is a low-impact method of clarifying wine without losing much volume.) We can set up a small bottling line here with our own equipment and hand-bottle wine here at GlenLyon, but only on a very small scale.
Glass ordering
After harvest we know our tonnage so I can approximate the number of cases and bottles (12 per case) for each wine we’ll need. One ton of grapes will yield about 160 gallons of wine, so my formula to make the conversion is 160 x 3.7854 ÷ 9 x 12 = # of bottles. (Don’t ask). To complicate the issue, I cannot purchase less than a full pallet of glass bottles (anywhere from 77 to 105 cases per pallet) of each mold, color and size, so I always end up with glass in excess.
As you can see from the above lineup of GlenLyon’s wines, each package is different. Some bottles are clear (“flint”) and some are dark (“antique green”); some are shaped with hard shoulders (“Bordeaux”) and some are gently curved (“Burgundy”). Each bottle may be taller or shorter, fatter or thinner and the neck diameter (important for the foil size) may differ. If I have unused glass left over from a prior bottling, I calculate how much new glass I think I’ll need. Unfortunately, if our glass supplier no longer carries the previous year’s glass, I cannot use the cases that I have in inventory (it messes with the bottling line equipment.) During the last five years we’ve had four different bottles for our Rosé!
Bottle labels
Once the # of pallets of the different glass are ordered, we arrange for a shipping company to pick up and deliver that glass from the distributor to one of two locations: either to Bergin Glass Impressions for our silk-screened labels or have the pallets delivered directly to GlenLyon that we will affix the paper label to the bottle on the bottling line. Remember that no matter the destination (screen-printer or GlenLyon) those pallets are shipped at no less than 77-105 cases each, so there will always be an overage of glass.
Corks and foil
Our cork artwork must be designed, approved and pre-ordered so that they will arrive before bottling day. Ditto the foil, all with different designs and sizes. Most of our foil comes from Europe, is custom-made and can take up to a year from order to arrival. Any large format bottles must be special ordered and will have a different (approved) label, foil and cork.
Once all the above has been done, the wine-making is further along, so I fine-tune the gallons of each wine we will be bottling (my early formula was a rough guesstimate). Any time we rack the wines from one vessel to another for clarification (2-3x per year) we lose volume and I will also lose a certain amount of wine from cross-flow filtration and bottling (about 1%). Now I have a more accurate estimate of the number of gallons and I will recalculate our bottling needs.
Sulfite addition
Just before filtering, we make a minimal sulfite add (SO2) that is necessary to prevent the wine from spoilage. Regardless of the frightening “contains sulfites” that must be on every label, the sulfite level in a bottle of wine is miniscule. (There are fewer sulfites in a bottle of wine than in a bag of trail mix.) We bring the sulfite level up to where the wine will be safely protected, but any ppm (parts-per-million) addition will be absolutely “undetectable”. The filtration truck will filter that wine from one of our tanks to another (sterile) tank filled with argon gas. (Argon is an inert, heavy gas that forms a protective cover over the wine to keep it from oxygen exposure.). We repeat the process for each wine in preparation for the bottling.
Filtering
“To filter or not to filter, that is the question.” After years of experimentation, research, trial and error, we now cross-flow filter all our wines the day prior to bottling. Every winemaker has an opinion about filtration and how (if) it affects the wine, but I think the “pros” far overshadow the “cons”. Filtering will ensure there will be no sediment or cloudiness in the wine bottle nor any future unwarranted microbiological activity. Cross-flow filtration does a superior job with very little loss of wine, and the before and after taste results (to me) are the same. I dislike sediment in the bottle and want my last glass of wine from that bottle to be as clear and delightful as my first glass.
The bottling truck
Early in the morning the bottling truck has taken the place of the filtration truck. Their technical crew will customize the bottling line for each of our different bottle shapes, labels, corks and foil. Our family, our trusty employees, a few willing friends and a hired crew of seven have been lined up to work the bottling line, beginning to end. There are a multitude of specific tasks and it does take “a village” to work the line. Once the pallets of the newly-bottled wine cases have been stacked and shrink-wrapped, we fork lift each pallet to our cool storage area.
After a long and most rewarding day (where hopefully nothing went wrong) the bottling is completed so we will pull a cork or two to celebrate the newly bottled and fermented “fruits of our labor”. It will take us the better part of two days for us to clean the winery and recover.
Next time you open a bottle of wine, look carefully at what you are holding and think about all the effort it took to create that bottle!
“Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter. Sermons and soda water the day after”. Lord Byron, 1788-1824
Squire Fridell
CEO, CFO, COO, EIEIO, Winemaker, Vineyard Manager & Janitor
GlenLyon Winery