13 February 200936 bottles has 6,000 bottles

13 February 2009, and it’s a Friday!  But more importantly we were bottling our Pinot Noir today, so it’s not a time to be superstitious!

For this occasion almost the whole team is along for the ride from Wellington to Cromwell via Dunedin. Patrick, Jane and I are there, with our Operations Manager, Emma and the grand kids.  What doesn’t drive us insane will make us stronger. The rental company have given us the use of people mover that we decide to call the ‘Mafia Mobile’ – due to the dark colour and tinted glass.  Another great drive through to Central Otago – it seems like going home now.  A extra pit stop or two for the kids and we discover hidden talents in a joint reading of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ that has the kids and us in hysterics – it certainly helped make the trip appear to whiz by.

Arrived in Cromwell to first bad news – No bottling until at least mid afternoon. 

So we while away the middle of the day with a flying visit to the winemakers in Wanaka.  This gave us an outstanding result when discussion turned to a bulk lot of Pinot Gris, which is still in tank, which we could get access to.  A quick tasting and a deal is done.  A perfect addition to our label.

Then back to Cromwell and on to meet the great folk at VinPro, who do our bottling.  The Pinot is on site, but more ‘bad news’ as we do more hurry up and wait.

Then suddenly it is all go!  We go out the back, into the bottling hall, to see the first bottles go through the filler, through the screwcap capsule spinner and then queued for labelling.  A special roll of the low numbers is ready, and then with the push of a button the first bottle rolls through the labeller and comes out as bottle 0001 of 6,000.  This is closely followed by the next 35 bottles. They are our 36 bottles!
 

Then it is pure production line as we help quality control label alignment and adhesion as the bottles move through to be boxed and palleted.  It is incredibly satisfying to see our labels on our wine, and going into boxes with the classy 36 bottles logo.  Also it’s good to know that we are doing a little bit for the planet with the use of recycled materials for the cartons.

Then suddenly we are at the end of the run.  It’s satisfying to have the first vintage in bottle – no more chance of anything going wrong to a bulk amount of the wine.  We finish off with 12 magnums and 3 double magnums – equivalent to 36 bottles!  Even on the big bottles our labels look impressive.  A few photos for the album and we are on our way.

All that is left is a quick dinner, fish and chips by Lake Dunstan and the drive back to Dunedin, followed by a flight to Wellington for Patrick, Jane and I tomorrow.