I'm picking up 3-4 cases of empties every month or 2 from a local winery, discards from the tasting room. For those willing to put in the elbow grease of cleaning bottles, it's a win. I'm well set for everything I have in production. It's also nice having consistent bottles, as they use puntless Bordeaux bottles in several shades of green and blue. While I prefer punted bottles, the price is certainly right!
That's great for you! I lucked out and was able to raid the recycling center here for about a year before they stopped taking glass, so I probably have a lifetime supply. In my state, bottles are required to be smashed by bars, etc. after they are emptied, supposedly to keep counterfeit booze from refilling them. I did buy a few cases used from a winery once, for $5 a case, but nobody here is giving them away when they are legally required to smash them. So even hobby winemakers who have used bottles will sell them to others.
I have recruited friends to save them and trained friends to return them. Every time one is emptied, I rinse it out, and have pretty much trained friends to do that, too. I use paper labels affixed with a mixture of milk and Elmer's Glue, a method I learned from a WMT poster here years ago, so when I want to remove them they get wetted and come right off. The only hard work is getting the original labels off.
This is a common state law across the Southeast.
