Wednesday, January 26, 2011

99 Bottles of Brunello on the Wall, 99 Bottles of Brunello ...

Last week we bottled the first batch of Brunello di Montalcino for Casa Raia! Pierre-Jean was expecting closer to 1,460 bottles and we ended up with 1,368 Brunello di Montalcino 2006.  It took us about 6-7 hours to complete the bottling and cleaning. The next day we were like a well-oiled machine and only took about 3 hours to bottle 895 bottles of Rosso di Montalcino. (photos to come later)

Here are some fun observations of the day...
  • The temperature in the cellar was around 50F so I was wearing 4 layers which included a rain jacket, fleece, hat, gloves, 2 pairs of pants, etc. And I was still cold!

  • Bottling is a 4 person job
  • Person #1 Fills the bottles
  • Person #2 Corks them
  • Person #3 Cleans them
  • Person #4  Places the bottles in the bin (and counts)


  • To transfer the wine, attach a clean hose to wine tank, then to filter, then to the pump, then to the bottling unit. 

  • Filter must have no pieces of plastic, paper, or other stuff in water or it will catch when cleaning. Our filter caught approximately 6-7 fruit flies from inside the tanks during our bottling! Eeeww.
  • All items must be clean and dry! Everything that touches the wine was cleaned with alcohol, citric acid and caustic soda.
  • The filling unit can fill 6 bottles at once.  The spout will automatically stop when filled to the right level because it equalizes and will not go higher.




  • You want a space 7cm from the top so the cork can be placed in perfectly
  • The corking machine was easy to use, mechanized and sucks air out as it deposits the cork in

  • No labels on the bottles now
  • Bottles will stand “upright” for 4-5 days to allow air to escape and wine to settle.  Then they will be placed on their side for another 4 months before being sold. 

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