Cellar Craft Bottle question

[RJB]

What is the forum's consensus on what bottles to use for wine? I can get new bottles from the local supplier, but decided not to. Two reasons:

1 - they cost $15/dozen. At 30-31 bottles per kit, this gets expen$ive.

2 - frankly, they seem kinda lightweight. Like they might break if they bump together.

So I have opted to use empties from supermarket wines. These are heavy, solid, and paid for. I use only Lindeman's (gotta support the Aussies back home) and Columbia Crest Two Vines bottles, to keep the sizes consistent.

The downside is that it is a pita getting the original labels and goo off. I use xylene (don't inhale that stuff) or Goofoff to remove the gum, then run em through the dishwasher.
I am curious to see if they have a limited lifetime, given that I run em through the dishwasher at least twice after cleaning them up, then at least once before bottling the wine.

Anyone have any comments on this?

thanks again, love the forum,

Bob
Maple Vly, WA

 

[Runningwolf]

What is the forum's consensus on what bottles to use for wine? I can get new bottles from the local supplier, but decided not to. Two reasons:

1 - they cost $15/dozen. At 30-31 bottles per kit, this gets expen$ive.

2 - frankly, they seem kinda lightweight. Like they might break if they bump together. Almost like glass huh!

So I have opted to use empties from supermarket wines. These are heavy, solid, and paid for. I use only Lindeman's (gotta support the Aussies back home) and Columbia Crest Two Vines bottles, to keep the sizes consistent.
Most of us will collect every wine bottle we can find. Once the lable is off no one will know where it came from anyways. Check wine bars and restaurants for used bottles also.
The downside is that it is a pita getting the original labels and goo off. I use xylene (don't inhale that stuff) or Goofoff to remove the gum, then run em through the dishwasher.
I am curious to see if they have a limited lifetime, given that I run em through the dishwasher at least twice after cleaning them up, then at least once before bottling the wine.
Anyone have any comments on this?

thanks again, love the forum,

Bob
Maple Vly, WA

I would never use any chemicals that were toxic on my bottles. I only use oxy clean and it works fine. Soak in very hot water for one hour with three scoops of oxy clean scrape off what comes off easily and set bottles back in water for another 1/2 hour and most all of the glue comes off. If it doesn't just give it another 30 minute soak. You don't need to kill yourself cleaning bottles. With that said everyone on this forum will give you a different way they do it.

 

[ibglowin]

Definitely not worth the $$$ to buy bottles. Plus like you say they are lightweight cheap things. Presentation is 50% of the product IMHO. I must have 80 cases of empties now from friends who give me their empties year round for close to 2 years. I am about to say "no mas" for awhile as I am running out of room to store them all. It's hard to turn a good bottle away though. I want to give it a good home it seems no matter how many I have!

 

[djrockinsteve]

Once you offer some friends a free bottle of wine and ask for the bottle back they will definitely save other wine bottles for you. Sort out the one's you like and after awhile you will have collected enough that you will need very few. Just keep yours in rotation.

 

[jet]

...
I am curious to see if they have a limited lifetime, given that I run em through the dishwasher at least twice after cleaning them up, then at least once before bottline the wine.
...

I don't think you are going to wear out the bottles washing them.

 

[RJB]

I have seen some glass items gradually deteriorate from being subjected to frequent washing in a dishwasher - don't know if it is the heat or the strong detergents. And given that supermarket bottles are really only intended to be used once, I will be interested to see how long they last. Maybe forever eh?

 

[jet]

I don't keep screw-top bottles. When I throw them in the bin at the recycling center, they almost never break. They normally bounce across the top of the glass that is already there, breaking many other jars along the way. So, yes, they may be intended as single-use containers, but they are generally rather durable.

 

[Runningwolf]

I have seen some glass items gradually deteriorate from being subjected to frequent washing in a dishwasher - don't know if it is the heat or the strong detergents. And given that supermarket bottles are really only intended to be used once, I will be interested to see how long they last. Maybe forever eh?

If I had a dishwasher and detergent that deteriorated glass, I would be throwing all my bottles in there with the labels on. Just think what it would ro to those labels.

 

[RJB]

The dishwasher will do a number on the labels, but it doesn't remove the gum. Neither does isopropyl alks. Only thing i have found that works is xylene (or Goofoff, which is largely xylene). Once the labels are off I remove all the gum i can with the xylene, put em through the washer, then clean em up *again* with the xylene, then one more time through the washer.
At that stage, they are clear, pretty and *cleeeeeeeeaaannn*, just like new.

 

[roblloyd]

The dishwasher will do a number on the labels, but it doesn't remove the gum. Neither does isopropyl alks. Only thing i have found that works is xylene (or Goofoff, which is largely xylene). Once the labels are off I remove all the gum i can with the xylene, put em through the washer, then clean em up *again* with the xylene, then one more time through the washer.
At that stage, they are *cleeeeeeeennn*

3M makes a fantastic adhesive remover. It's probably expensive and toxic but it works very well! I've used it in marine applications back when I worked on a 1929 65' Alden Schooner.

 

[cpfan]

So I have opted to use empties from supermarket wines. These are heavy, solid, and paid for. I use only Lindeman's (gotta support the Aussies back home) and Columbia Crest Two Vines bottles, to keep the sizes consistent.

Supermarket wines? First time I've heard commercial wines called that.

Lindemans from Australia will probably be screw caps. First picture at their site...bottle has a screw cap. Next pic shows 8 different bottles with screw caps.

Columbia Crest...quick look doesn't show the bottle neck, so no idea if screw cap or cork.

Screw cap bottles are an issue. You can read up on opinions/reasons in other threads. The bottom line is new screw caps are not available, and corking might cause glass breakage.

Steve

 

[rob]

I tried all different ways to take labels off and really the best way and fastest is a razor blade, finish up with a sos pad, I can do a bottle in less than a minute

 

[BigBend]

WD-40 works great for getting the tough gum off.

 

[ibglowin]

Columbia Crest does not use screw caps. I do have to warn you though I had about 8-9 Lindemans bottles for a batch awhile back and their labels were impossible (nearly) to remove. I would definitely pick another Aussie brand to support for that alone.

 

[DaveM]

Yellow Tail labels are fairly easy to remove. Although, they use screw caps now.

Lately I've noticed a few commercial ones that are pretty easy to remove. They are Los Alamos Malbec, and Barefoot Cab. Sauv. There are a few others too, but I can't quite remember the names yet. They're pretty cheap table wines that are decent.

 

[ibglowin]

I collected a boatload of Yellow Tail bottles my first year. Nice and heavy and yep the labels removed pretty darn easily. I noticed the whites were starting to come out in Stavin screwcaps awhile back. Have not looked lately to see if the reds were moving over.

Its just a matter of time as the Aussies were the first to start switching to screw caps years ago when the cork manufacturers started sending them TCA tainted crap corks and charging crazy prices for them. The cork producers thought they could ship/sell anything and no one could/would complain.

Now the world is slowly but surely moving to screwcaps (especially for inexpensive table wines) and the cork producers are panicked as market share and demand slides each year.