It can make your head spin!

Bottling.  It's pretty crazy.  Since the malo-lactic fermentation didn't finish before winter, I kind of let some of  the details of bottling slip thinking that we wouldn't be able to bottle right away. Well, now that the warm days have returned and the temperature of the wine has risen, the malo magically did it's thing and we can go ahead and bottle.  Great news, but boy do I have to get my act together!

The logo is done and I've met with the printers for the label, but  I still have to create the back label and write the text.  Then there's the actual bottling.  Here in France there are several companies that specialize in "mise en bouteille au domaine" or domaine bottling.  The law states that in order to put that oh so important phrase on your bottle, it must in fact be bottled at the winery.  Small wineries like ours and even much bigger ones, rely on bottling trucks that come to the winery to filter, bottle, cork, label, capsule and even box the wine.  These companies put a bottling line on the back of an semi, come with a team of people and in a day will bottle our entire production, that is to say, 13,000 bottles.  Some wineries choose to bottle their wines a little at a time as a function of the space they have to stock the wine and also as a function of the orders they have pending.  I want to bottle it all at once. This way it will guarantee that each bottle of Domaine de la Gramière Côtes du Rhône, is the same.  If we were to bottle say, half now and half in 6 months, the two wines would likely be quite different since the wine in bottle would evolve differently in bottle than that which was left in the vat.

I've spent the last two days on the phone with friends and colleagues in the wine business here getting the names and numbers of suppliers for bottles, corks, capsules, bottlers, etc.  Today I met with two sales people; one that sells bottles, capsules, boxes, basically everything but corks, the other that just sells bottles and capsules.  I saw all of the different styles of bottles, and the colors available, then within those categories all of the various options.  There were at least 7 options of Burgundy style bottles and even more for Bordeaux ranging from the cheapest and lightest to the heaviest and most expensive.  It's enough to make your head spin!  And this is only the beginning...I still need capsules, corks, boxes and I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting.  All of this we'd like to have ready for the beginning of June so that we can bottle the wine and have it ready for the July and August tourist season in Uzès!  Do you think we'll make it???  I'm not so sure!

Comments

[Fritz Krieger]

Amy- You should have named this piece 'spin the bottle'.

Hope all is going well, Elody and I say the best day we had in France was the day we spent with you.

Fritz