I had the opportunity to help out Chris Van Alyea bottling his Christopher Cameron 2007 “Lambert Bridge Vineyard” Petite Sirah and 2006 Costa Azul Sonoma County Red Blend. We bottled about 360 cases total, it was a long day, but a lot of fun!  It was really interesting to check out the fancy bottling line, with an automated bottler that ran the bottles on a carousel to purge them with inert gas, then fill and cork the bottles.  The bottles then came down the assembly line Laverne & Shirley style (oh yes, a glove was put on a bottle coming down the line before the day was over), where the foils were popped on top to be spun on with another machine at the end of the line.  The bottles were then passed over to a nifty labeling machine that didn’t necessarily feel like working that day, but was neat when it did.  It was a little more massive production than my home bottling, but it gave me some experience that I plan to use when we do our “big” bottling of the barrel wines.

Chris’ blog entry is at:  http://ccvwines.blogspot.com/2009/04/bottling_08.html