all the bottles you'll ever need - free

[Brad Simmons]

OK, I took all y'all's advice and found more bottles than I know what to do with.

Craig's List - excellent - good leads from out of the woodwork. Some were just people with 5-15 bottles - some were wineries and vineyards 10-15 cases - and one was - bingo - a wine shop. They do weekly tastings - and customers bring in their bottles to recycle. 700-800 to start.

FreeCycle - pretty good leads, but lots of crud to wade through - everything from strollers to exercise equipment to moving boxes - wading, wading. I wouldn't recommend as first resort if you want to be efficient. Great idea and venue though.

Good Lawd, I got the bottles now. More bottles than I will ever use (Do I sound like Bill Gates?).

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you all. The obvious is --- sometimes not so obvious.

George, you aren't getting any new empty bottle bidness from me now, so I will have that much more to spend with you on Juice!

Once again, great tips guys. Wine On, Wine On Harvest Moon!

 

[Wade E]

Good to hear, recycling at its best!

 

[cindyjo]

My husband and I tried Craigs list for bottles and have come up with nothing. I have made contact with a local restaurant which is helping my bottle search. Acutally I was going to post this question. Is it terrible to put white wine in green bottles?? I am getting many more green bottles and do not have enough clear bottles for the whites. Will the wine police come pick me up?? thanks

 

[Wade E]

We will look the other way for only you! Put it in whatever you want. Its your wine, if you give it to someone and they give you a look then dont ever give it to them again.

 

[Tom]

My husband and I tried Craigs list for bottles and have come up with nothing. I have made contact with a local restaurant which is helping my bottle search. Acutally I was going to post this question. Is it terrible to put white wine in green bottles?? I am getting many more green bottles and do not have enough clear bottles for the whites. Will the wine police come pick me up?? thanks

If you don't have any clear bottles will you still bottle? Of course you will. For me its presentation only. If you enter a white wine in competition in a green bottle it doesn't matter. You will not be deducted any points. More important is what temp thos FULL bottles are in. You want to maintain a constant cool temp.

 

[Tom]

Wade you have fast fingers tonite

 

[Brad Simmons]

My biggest score so far is a wine shop. They do tastings twice a week 4:30-8pm they go through a LOT of wine. Also the second biggest score is a vineyard/winery. they have tons of bottles - same reason.

PS - according to the Gewurstaminer Law of 1624, all whites must be in Blue bottles. You are under arrest, hand over all your wine and you will be excused. UPS your wine to Brad Simmons PO Box 97........

 

[Brad Simmons]

Cindy,

Did you try FreeCycle.org? They seemed to have a bunch, but onesies, twosies. That can lead to some better leads though.

I still say CL and wine shops are your best bet. Worked well for me.

 

[cindyjo]

Wow, you guys are pretty funny.Do not hold your breath there Brad. I will look into the wine shops but I am not sure of any place that does tastings. We use to have a great one but it shut down

I had pretty much decided that I would have to use the green bottles as I have a white to bottle pretty soon.And I will try to do as you suggested. I am going to keep hitting up restaurants too. Thanks for putting my mind at ease.

 

[gaudet]

if you got that many bottles you might consider selling them by the case yourself. You could be a bottle kingpin

 

[masta]

I have hundreds of empties that are free toany FVW forum member who can pick them up (Southern RI) and save me the trip taking them to the recycling center.


PM me if interested.

 

[OilnH2O]

One thing you might try is one of your local hotels that caters to banquets -- the trick is to get to the food/beverage manager AND the banquet/catering manager -- to find out those events where they may be catering wine with the meal (where every table gets the same label/bottle). Ask if they will just drop the empties back into the cases and set them somewhere for you to pick up the next morning (maybe a back loading dock). The best thing is to actually be able to mention it to the catering manager just before they serve -- where they are giving all the servers their last minute instructions. IF you can do that, every one of the servers is taking those empties and working for YOU!

If you can find a meal with a white wine (Fridays in Lent are a good possibility!

) you can end up with literally hundreds of chardonnay or other "white" wine bottles -- and every bottle will be the same light green or clear color -- not to mention same size, shape, etc. And, from experience, I can tell you it is a pleasure to drive up at 8am on a Saturday morning and see a dozen boxes of bottles, neatly stacked and awaiting your arrival!

Even if you are in a community with an active recycling (for glass) program, many people would rather see a bottle get re-used than ground up!

 

[masta]

I have hundreds of empties that are free toany FVW forum member who can pick them up (Southern RI) and save me the trip taking them to the recycling center.


PM me if interested.

All my 750ml bottles have been spoken for but I have plenty of 1.5L wine bottles and beer bottles looking for a new home.

 

[Old Submariner]

Here are 1250 new clear bottles for $100, all you have to do is make a road trip to Austin.
http://houston.craigslist.org/for/1048236593.html

 

[uavwmn]

Wade is right, if you give someone wine and they give you "stink eye", because it is a white in a green bottle.......no mo wine for you, my friend!!

 

[seminarian]

Try freecycle.org. While some have been onesies twosies. I have picked up more cases and multiples that onesies twosies. it's a great service. Picked up 4 cases from one individual over a three week period.

 

[bevie55]

now that you got all the bottle you will ever need....you got any idea where I can find sturdy boxes to ship just one bottle of wine at a time? I use the 750 ml green or cobalt bottles. I have friends all over the USA and some of them deserve a bottle of my wine from time to time. Let me know if you know where to look. Bev

 

[cb_Sadie]

Here are 1250 new clear bottles for $100, all you have to do is make a road trip to Austin.
http://houston.craigslist.org/for/1048236593.html

Those are already gone. I spoke to Alex the guy who had the bottles and I was going to have my Dad pick them up for me and then my Dad got busy and did not call Alex the next day to make arrangements and he sold them to someone else. Made me sick. OH well..


Cyndy

 

[Runningwolf]

Living in Northwest Pa. by Lake Erie, there are loads of wineries that give free tastings and can not reuse the bottles. They have an endless supply of used bottles for two or three dollars a case. Also a great place for getting juice.