Winemaker's Archives -- George Troquato

Bottling: We are mobile

With 20 years of experience, Winemaker George Troquato has bottled wine just about every way possible. He has bottled by hand or with state-of-the-art equipment; with glue labels or pressure sensitive (self-adhesive); in straight, tapered, blue, green, clear, or smoke glass; and with natural corks, plastic or agglomerate (like Champagne). Going into these bottles has been dry, sweet, red, white or blush wines. One could safely say he's seen it all.

Filler from a bottling line

While bottling may be ho-hum stuff for most of us, it is anything but that to winemakers. All of their efforts may literally go down the drain if things go wrong.

After decisions are finalized about glass, label, cork and capsule (foil), the business of bottling begins. Most commercial enterprises use automated bottling lines to streamline the process. With quality lines starting at $400,000, many small producers opt for mobile units. "Beyond their cost effectiveness, mobile lines offer expert handlers, the latest equipment and additional cellar space," says George.

Cinnabar currently contracts with Ryan-McGee Bottling. This Napa Valley firm delivers a 35-foot bobtail truck with a self-contained bottling line and two technicians to Cinnabar's cellar door at 6am on the day of bottling. "It takes about two hours to sterilize the lines with 180-degree water and ready the equipment," says George. Much of the latter is consumed by adjusting the labeler so that labels are glued within millimeters of their target.

Fourteen workers (including two Ryan-McGee techs) were needed to bottle 850 cases of Cinnabar's 2001 Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay. The first three dump empty bottles at the start of the conveyor. The bottles travel to the orbiter where they are sparged with nitrogen to remove dust particles and create an inert environment for the wine. Next, they ride to the filler-corker where a multi-spouted device simultaneously dispenses wine into 24 bottles followed by the insertion of corks with a vacuum corker. The bottles move to the foil spinner where capsules are formed around each bottle top, and then to the labeler. (One Ryan-McGee tech watches label application; the other is stationed at the filler.) The next three workers place filled bottles into boxes that slide down the line to the case sealer. One person date stamps each box and another applies a label to its side. Three more workers stack cases on palettes while a forklift operator moves them when full. George Troquato wanders from station to station making sure all is well.

The line is run at 50 bottles per minute at first, but is accelerated to 90 bottles per minute once all components are synchronized.

Like anything else in life, there are good days and bad in bottling. "Sometimes Bacchus looks down and smiles while other times he wakes up on the wrong side of the bed," says George.