I got one of those and filled it for my niece's rehearsal dinner. I wanted to make up a big party bottle of wine, but found that they were rather expensive. The best I found on the internet was about $40 plus $10 shipping.
I ended up buying it at a liquor store.
I went into the liquor store to buy some cigars. I noticed a BIG display bottle on a shelf. It was the kind of promotional stuff that distributors like give out for advertising purposes.
I tapped it and noticed that is was a real bottle, made of thick green glass. Since it was only for display, it was empty. In other words, I found just what I was looking for!
I asked the fella behind the counter..
"how much for the big bottle?".
"Oh Sir, This is a display and not for sale" he said.
I offered him $10.
"you do know that this is empty" he said.
"Yes, I know" I said, then offered him $20.
"SOLD" yelled the man.
I am sure that he walked away thinking that he made the deal of the century. I am sure that he was wondering what kind of fool would pay $20 for an empty wine bottle..
I walked away happy on getting such a good deal.
The label on this bottle was applied with water soluble glue and soaked right off. I was then left with a new, unused 7 liter bottle!
To cork it, I ended up making my own cork out of a tapered cork stopper. I simply sanded the stopper until I ended up with a cylinder about the diameter of the outside of the neck of the bottle. I then sanded a taper on one end, narrowing it to the diameter of the inside of the neck.
I filled the bottle and just drove the cork in with a rubber mallet.
I was amazed on how well it worked! I stored the bottle on its side for two weeks with not even a smidge of leakage.
Sorry for the long post. Just thought that I would share.
