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So, today, 31 cases. A great time on just what would not fit in the bottle!
Started corking!
- Thread starter JohnT
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Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:
Holy guacamole! That's a lot of bottling. Did ya have any help? (Bottling, not drinking)
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I had a 225 liter barrel of "reserve" that we never got around to bottle before the onset of winter.
Since lent just ended, it was time to get to it. I had my brother, niece, and her boyfriend help out.
At the risk of sparking the great "To soak cork or not to soak cork" debate, I normally toss corks into a bucket that is 1/3 full with k-meta solution just prior to use. I do this to clean the outside of the cork and to also provide a little "lubrication" for the cork. When we were down to bottling our last case of the barrel reserve, my Niece noticed that we needed more corks. So, she opened a new bag of 1,000, and poured about 150 into the bucket.
We only needed about 8 or 9 corks!
Not wanting to waste the corks, We ended up extending the bottling to also include a 54 liter demijohn (this was the same year/vintage as the barrel reserve) and a carboy of Chilean carmenere. We ended up with 24 (plus 4 bottles) out of the barrel, 6 cases out of the demi, and 2 cases out of the carboy.
We then cleaned/sanitized the barrel, and then "barreled" the 2017 reserve.
To thank the Niece and her boy friend, I sent her home with a case of the reserve plus a 1/2 case of my chardonnay. She was very happy.
With 4 people things went well. We started at 10am and were finished and all cleaned up by about 2 pm. I had one person filling (me) one "topping up" each bottle to the correct level (the boyfriend), one corking (my brother), and one rinsing/wiping, and stacking (my niece). When we ran low on prepped bottles, they all jumped onto that task as I just simply kept filling.
It does work much better with 6-8 people so that there are those that can take care of prepping the bottles (rinse them in k-meta and stack them on one of the three bottle trees), but we made out fine with just 4.
Once finished, it was time for cigars and a little sipping. I had nothing to drink on Friday night (even though lent was over) so this was the official "breaking of the fast" Saturday. We a blast, talking, laughing, and listening to Alexa.
Since lent just ended, it was time to get to it. I had my brother, niece, and her boyfriend help out.
At the risk of sparking the great "To soak cork or not to soak cork" debate, I normally toss corks into a bucket that is 1/3 full with k-meta solution just prior to use. I do this to clean the outside of the cork and to also provide a little "lubrication" for the cork. When we were down to bottling our last case of the barrel reserve, my Niece noticed that we needed more corks. So, she opened a new bag of 1,000, and poured about 150 into the bucket.
We only needed about 8 or 9 corks!
Not wanting to waste the corks, We ended up extending the bottling to also include a 54 liter demijohn (this was the same year/vintage as the barrel reserve) and a carboy of Chilean carmenere. We ended up with 24 (plus 4 bottles) out of the barrel, 6 cases out of the demi, and 2 cases out of the carboy.
We then cleaned/sanitized the barrel, and then "barreled" the 2017 reserve.
To thank the Niece and her boy friend, I sent her home with a case of the reserve plus a 1/2 case of my chardonnay. She was very happy.
With 4 people things went well. We started at 10am and were finished and all cleaned up by about 2 pm. I had one person filling (me) one "topping up" each bottle to the correct level (the boyfriend), one corking (my brother), and one rinsing/wiping, and stacking (my niece). When we ran low on prepped bottles, they all jumped onto that task as I just simply kept filling.
It does work much better with 6-8 people so that there are those that can take care of prepping the bottles (rinse them in k-meta and stack them on one of the three bottle trees), but we made out fine with just 4.
Once finished, it was time for cigars and a little sipping. I had nothing to drink on Friday night (even though lent was over) so this was the official "breaking of the fast" Saturday. We a blast, talking, laughing, and listening to Alexa.
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