Bottling Line

Bottling wine is the final step in wine production.  It is the closing paragraph, concluding that year’s harvest, which begins with the budding of the grapes on the vines.  This year we bottled our 2022 Pinot Noir and our 2023 Viognier.  The grapes were harvested a year apart but bottled together.  This is because our Pinot Noir spends 8-14 months in an assortment of new and used French oak barrels.  We like to use the analogy that the different types of barrels that we use are like a spice cabinet when cooking.  Our Viognier is a pure expression of the grape and not only doesn’t have any extended aging, but there isn’t any oak barrel aging. While the conclusion of the year always ends with bottling our wines, the process changes every year.  

We don’t follow a recipe in our wine production.  Every vintage presents itself with unique situations and challenges that we must deal with.  It is better to say, we have a wine making philosophy which we follow, rather than a strict recipe, adding 2 tablespoons and ¾ a cup every time will not produce the same results in a winery as it would baking in a kitchen.  Our philosophy is simple.  Be as minimal as we can with any additions, taste the wine frequently and always question and refine our practices and beliefs.  A good example of this is in the corks that we now use.

When we first began building our brand and producing our wines, we strived for the “best” quality in every aspect we could source.  Our bottles were heavy, beautifully crafted glass from France, our foils were heavy tin from Germany and our corks were the longest, highest grade from Portugal.  As our understanding of the industry and our customers evolved, so did our focus on the products we sourced and the reason for sourcing them.  

During the pandemic, we started shipping more of our wine.  Our beautiful, heavy Burgundian bottles hindered this development.  Our packages were heavy, bulky and had higher than normal breakage.  We solved this problem by sourcing a lighter bottle.  Our heavy tin foils were harder to remove, and the edges were sharp.  We changed these as well.  It took us awhile, but after hearing some bad cork stories from our customers, we changed our corks also.  The reality is, after the wines leave the winery, we do loose some control of how they are handled.  

Our goal is to always have the best quality wine poured from our bottles.  And that is what we focus on.  We’ve realized that the quality of that wine is what people talk about.  Not the cork, or the foil or even the glass bottle (Although our limited edition run of Albertus Magnus bottles might test that thought.  Some of our customers made lamps and filled them with sand after they were so beautiful) it is what is inside the bottle that’s important.  When we are ready to bottle our wine, we are looking to source the best quality products to protect and ensure that the wine you pour, is what we intended when we produced it.  

The day we bottle is a special day for us.  The bottling line is a conveyor belt of automation and finally tuned parts.  Years of work and preparation are culminated in a final product.  We always smile at the first bottle, then case, then palate that goes through the line.  The latest wines that we bottled were our 2022 Pinot Noir and our 2023 Viognier.  While they are not available yet for release, they will be soon.    Use the promotion code: FIRSTPICK23 for half price shipping on any order of 3 or more bottles.  The first 10 people to use the code will also get an extra 10% off.  Thank you for your support!