On The Bottling Line!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time on the bottling line for two of Washington’s newest wineries, Convergence Zone Cellars and Kaella Winery. The winemaker-owners are both friends of mine, and I’ve been happily following their progress over the past couple of years as they began to move from personal to professional winemaking. I’ve tasted juice fresh after crush, sampled their wines from barrel and carboys, sampled the wines at various points in the aging process, and had fun chatting about their plans for future blends. I’ve been able to vicariously experience their decision-making processes about blends, wine labels, and winery space. It’s been amazing watching all that they’ve gone through in their journey.

On Saturday, both of my friends went through their first full bottling process, which means their wines will soon be ready for sale to the public. I was excited for them, and I’m excited for the rest of us who will soon be able to enjoy their wonderful wines. Convergence Zone Cellars and Kaella Winery will be making wine drinkers happy for years to come.

This is only the second time I've helped bottle wine, and I know most of you reading this blog won't have pariticipated in a bottling process before. Because of this, I put together a quick overview of what happens.

Breakdown of the Process

1. Boxes full of empty bottles are turned over onto a table, where they are promptly grabbed and placed on the rotating bottle filler.

2. The cone is full of hundreds of corks, waiting to be placed into bottles.

3. One by one, the bottles are pulled from the bottle filler and placed in the corking machine, which then drives each cork in with a big Pop-and-Whoosh sound that punctuates the entire process.

4. Bottles quickly fill the table, waiting for someone to quickly place a foil capsule on top. I spent most of my morning in this area, popping on capsules, moving bottles around, and grabbing empty boxes when they were needed.

5. The loose-fitting capsules need to be tightened down in what is perhaps the least popular spot on the bottling line. The woman here was a total pro who volunteers to help the small up-and-coming winemakers in our area. She grabbed each bottle, tilted it down at a 90 degree angle, then inserted it into the sealing machine.

6. Bottles quickly fill the boxes, and are then moved to waiting pallettes. Often, as in this case, a hovering winemaker is nearby overseeing it all.

More Photos

Bottling is a very energetic and quick process, but whenever I had a moment to stop moving boxes or popping capsules on the bottles, I tried to snap some quick photos.