Page 31 - Grapevine July-August 2019

In The Winery

space, time, and money, or they may go this route Bill Kreck, the founder of Mill Creek Vineyards
to entrust the job to someone with more experi- & Winery and Mill Creek Mobile Bottling Services
ence and increase bottling speed. Companies spe- who spent 17 years in this segment of the wine
cialize in this process to take the headaches out of industry, told The Grapevine that mobile bottlers
onsite bottling, although wineries still need to meet can be classified as petite, small, and “big dogs”
certain requirements to ensure a successful bot- with regard to capacity. He said petite bottlers have
tling day. Before bottling day, for example, wineries a capacity that usually tops out at about 75 cases
need to complete the filtration process, ensure of wine per hour and uses hand-bottling equip-
proper wine temperature, have the necessary ment mounted on a small trailer. Small bottlers
equipment and staff available, and have labels that can produce around 150 to 250 cases per hour
work with the bottler’s machinery. with automatic equipment in a large trailer that is
equipped with conveyors to allow bottles to move
When it comes to deciding whether or not to without manual assistance. “Big dogs” can produce
choose mobile bottling, key factors to consider are up to 100 bottles per minute so that a winery could
whether it is cost-effective to own your own bot- expect to get up to 3,000 cases in an eight-hour
tling line and how many bottles and cases you are day. These large vendors typically operate in 40-
looking to produce per season. to 50-foot semi-truck trailers and offer advanced
services, such as onboard nitrogen generators and
“As a winery just starting out, it made sense for bottle coding. While large bottling lines require
us to utilize the capital investment that would be more personnel to operate, they run very fast so
required for a dedicated bottling line on other there is a lower per-case labor cost than for smaller
things that elevate wine quality,” said winemaker lines.
Ryan Prichard of Three Sticks Wines in Sonoma,
California. “We were, and still are, a small winery Some mobile bottlers stick to either just caps
so putting money towards equipment that we or just corks for wine closures, while others offer
would only use a couple of days a year didn’t make multiple options for wineries to choose from. Mill
sense when there were high-quality mobile bottling Creek Mobile Bottling first went into business in
options available.” 2001, and Kreck said, “At that time, screw cap
wines were reserved exclusively for low-end, low
Charlie Fauroat, winemaker for Pellegrini Wine quality, mass produced wines and not at all appro-
Co. in Santa Rosa, California, told The Grapevine priate for quality products from Sonoma County
Magazine that his winery uses Peregrine Mobile vintners.”
Bottling for their bottling needs.
However, attitudes have changed about screw
Pellegrini Wine chose this bottler because of the caps, and there are now many more mobile bot-
“excellent dissolved oxygen management, positive tlers in the industry competing for winery clients.
pressure filler to help minimize carbon dioxide loss,
and a troubleshooting staff who care immensely “Many wineries have retained cork finish for reds
about customer service and performance within but have converted to screw cap finish for their
their jobs,” Fauroat said. white wines, so if a bottler cannot do both, the
winery is likely to find one that can,” Kreck said.
Fauroat went on to share that mobile bottling “It would not be wise now to be a mobile bottler
has affected the way his winery operates because unless that dual closure option was available.”
it “allows us not to have to truck wine offsite to In addition to screw cap or cork options, other
bottle, further beating up the wine in this already custom options provided by mobile bottlers include
hectic period for the wine.” PVC, polylam, or tin capsules and also bottles in
750ml, 500ml, and 375ml sizes.
Differences Between Mobile Bottlers
Meanwhile, Mary McLaughlin of Ryan Mobile
While on the surface it may seem that mobile Bottling in Napa, California said that what sets her
bottlers are all one and the same, there are actu- company apart from its competition is its people.
ally quite a few differences in their capabilities and This is another major difference among mobile bot-
what they offer. tlers.

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