I am a slightly out of control home winemaker with 2 barrels to bottle this summer. I just finished bottling a 30 gallon barrel by siphon and a bottle wand (that didn’t really work very well with the bottles I had).
I am done with the wand.
I thought seriously about using a boutique bottling line, but it is a bit expensive for two barrels, like $700 or so. Especially if I do this every year.
Another choice is the Enolmatic. Are there pro’s out there using the Enolmatic? My local home winemaker shop really doesn’t like it; they say too many issues with too much O2 in the wine.
Or I rent or buy a 3 spout gravity filler.
What do wineries do when they have only a few barrels?
I like this type and last time I rented one (last summer), it was $50 from Oak Barrel in Berkeley. Reasonably fast (a lot faster than with siphon tube and a wand!) and I’ve gotten good consistent fill levels with this filler too. Just need to clean it really well if you rent one since you never know how well it was cleaned before you get it. A lot cheaper than buying your own but you might consider buying one if you have the money and you feel you are going to continue to make a couple of barrels a year for many years. I’ve worked with wineries that used this type of filler for up to about a 600-case annual production. You can do as many as 175-200 cases in a long day if you’re efficient and line up a few friends to help with bottling/corking/etc. If you think about buying one, you might check around for used ones too.
I’m not familiar with that Enolmatic so I can’t comment on it.
I’ll second what Ken says about fillers and volume. I have a 4 spout Marchisio exactly like the picture and have done 150 cases per day without too much stress. In fact the corker becomes the bottle neck not the filler. Don’t mistake the gravity filler that fill from the bottom of the tank with siphon style multi-spout fillers that have a curved siphon tube that draws wine into the bottle. They are way cheaper but very frustrating to get consistent fill levels and losing the siphon. I have never used an Enolmatic but know many amateurs that have with good results. No reason they should have O2 issues unless the vacuum is set too high and the wine sprays into the bottle. I have also seen amateurs that buy the spare Enolmatic heads and build a 2 or 3 head Enolmatic using a seperate vacuum pump for fairly low cost.
Ken Zinns - do you also rent an electric corker? If so, from who?
Have used boutique in the past with great commercial results. Sparged bottles and negative pressure head space are nice to have. No need to keep them cork up for 2 weeks before flipping the bottles to cork down. The extra expense will save lots of time.
If you have a few friends rent a gravity multi spout filler and a floor corker and you should be able to get 2 barrels into bottle in a half a day or so.
What kind of wine and from where are the grapes? Home wine is so much fun and good qpr for you and your friends/family.
Joe, I’ve bottled with both Kaleb at Boutique Mobile Bottling and with Matt at Artisan Mobile Bottling many times and I can highly recommend both of them. Bottled with Matt today in fact, at Coterie Cellars in San Jose…and I’ll be bottling with him again on Wednesday at Ladd Cellars in Sonoma. Also bottle with Matt at Ed Kurtzman’s place for various labels and at Harrington Wines where I work part-time too. I’ve bottled with Kaleb at Broc Cellars in Berkeley, with Bryan Kane for his labels (VIE, Sol Rouge, Winery SF) on Treasure Island, as well as where I work part-time at Eno Wines in Berkeley. Matt’s line is more automated and faster but Kaleb can do screwcaps which Matt can’t.
Steve, I’ve just used basic hand corkers for hand-bottling. So I know that’s an issue since they don’t pull a vacuum, but bottle variation has not been too bad. We always sparge bottles when hand-bottling, and I’m sure that helps. For bottling one or two barrels, renting a good gravity filler and hand-bottling makes the most sense to me.
The wine is syrah, but this summer we also have one barrel of zin to bottle. The grapes all come from my father in laws commercial vineyard in Bennett Valley. I claim a half ton of the grapes.
Home wine is great fun, without the complexity of selling it!
I started with a carboy, and over the years it has grown to 2 barrels. It is difficult to get processing equipment that scales well. But I am done growing. One or two barrels is enough.