Wine Making

Yesterday, Kevin and I went to Grape Inspiration in Carmel to bottle the three batches of Riesling that we made. These half bottles will be the wedding favors that our guests will be receiving, as well as the place card holders for the reception. I created the labels, and the nice people at the winery printed them off for me. The whole bottling process took three hours!! Here are some pictures detailing our experience. Kevin cleaning the wine bottles prior to bottling.

Waiting for the bottles to dry on the trees. Bottling the wine. Corking the wine. The aforementioned corked wine. Cleaning the bottles after they are corked. Sealing the bottles. The bottles are placed into this heated coil thingy by hand, and the seals shrink to form around the top and the cork. Neat!! Unfortunately, my machine broke, so Kevin got stuck with this duty. Kevin using the heated coil thingy. Applying the labels. Quality control. Since we made three batches, it was important to taste all three of them...at least that's what they told us. So, when in Rome.... Two of our best samples. Bottled, corked, sealed, and labeled! Our finished products. Just over seven boxes. Kevin called them seven boxes and a gimpy. Yes folks, that's 175 bottles! We know that the time and energy we spent doing this will be much appreciated by all of our wedding guests. Plus, it was fun doing this together.