4 May 2008
[Epi 24] TintoTV - Our first bottling!!!
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Stephany and I proudly present our first bottling episode/party! All the experience in winemaking that we have you’ve seen in our previous 23 episodes, and to bottle one of our favorite varietals (malbec) in this show is a fun accomplishment and something that we’ll be able to appreciate over the next few years. We’ll hand out a few of these as gifts this Christmas 2008! Ok, on to the details:
With some extra toys, cleaning and sanitizing wasn’t so bad! First, we rinsed the bottles using an adapter for a normal faucet called “The Blast”; this would pressure wash the bottle upon application. After the bottled dried on a “tree”, we used the “Avinatore” to apply the sanitizing solution into the bottle. The bottles would then dry on the “tree” before filling.
We had a 3 person assembly line that worked perfectly for us. After the siphon was started with the auto-siphon-racking-cane, I filled the bottles precisely with a little auto-filler. The auto-filler has a valve that stops the flow of wine as soon as I lift it from a surface – this was extremely helpful! After I finished filling the bottle, I would place it on the table for my friend, Mark. He was responsible for corking the bottle. We use corks from Fine Vine Wines and soaked them for 5-10 minutes in a potassium metabisulphite solution. Corking the bottles was very easy with our “Italian” Floor Corker. As you see in the footage, the floor corker compresses the cork and pushes it down the neck of the bottle with little force. After the bottle was corked, Mark would pass the bottle onto Stephany who was responsible for cleaning the outside of the bottles and labeling them. We printed our label on normal 8.5×11” paper (each label is 3×4”). Stephany used extra-strength glue-stick and pasted these on the bottle. Voila! The 2007 Tinto Cellars Townhouse Series Malbec, Argentina .
I’ve placed links below on the gadgets I thought were especially helpful for expediting this process, keeping it fun:
- Bottle Filler – Fast Flow
- Bottle Drainer Tree
- Single Blast Bottle Washer
- Bottle Washer Adapter
- Bottle Rinser – Avinatore (for sanitizing)
These are just some of the extras I found very useful during this bottling party. I hope you enjoyed the show, and we’ll soon be bottling again. So if you have any tips for us, let us know! Thanks again for viewing!
-Stephany and Nico
— Michael Sanchez May 6 #
— Darren and Laura May 9 #
— Bob May 10 #
— claudia y gabriel vieco Jun 20 #
— Randy Jun 30 #
— newbie wine maker Mar 25 #
— TOM May 25 #
— Randy Jul 22 #