Bottling Your Wine
Bottling will take approximately 45 minutes per batch of wine. Feel free to bring along additional help and speed up the bottling process. Your wine is contained in a 23 litre glass carboy and will yield 30-750ml bottles of wine. Specialty wines, such as ice wine, is contained in an 11.5 litre glass carboy and will yield 30-375ml bottles. Prior to filling your bottles with wine, your bottles will first be sanitized with a potassium metabisulphite solution.
We can show you how to use the equipment to bottle your wine. Repetition is the best teacher. You will learn all you need to know by the last bottle filled, corked and sealed, of your first batch of wine.
You are permitted a 5 ounce sampling of your wine. Satisfaction is guaranteed!
Bottles
You may bottle your wine in previously used bottles. However, always inspect your bottles to ensure that they are clean. A good wine in a bad bottle will go off! If there is mould, stains or bugs in the bottle toss it! Screw top bottles have thin necks prone to breakage and there is not enough surface area on the length of the cork to create a good closure – not recommended. Clear and dark 750 ml bottles are available at The Wine Place at a cost of $1.10 per bottle plus taxes. Specialty wine bottles are available at a cost of $1.75 per bottle plus taxes.
To prolong the life of your bottles may we suggest the following:
Upon finishing a bottle of wine, remove the seal completely and peel off the label (labels can be removed more easily without soaking) then rinse out the inside of the bottle thoroughly with hot water and place in a dish strainer upside down over night. The next day place your bottle upside down in your cardboard case ready for your next batch of wine.