What a day it was yesterday!
We got started at 10am and proceeded to bottle 51 cases. All told, and including the time to get set up and time spent "on break", bottling for the day took only 3 hours. That is an average of 1 bottle every 20 seconds. Without "down time" we were bottling at a rate of 1 every 7 seconds.
We had 8 folks helping out. Two people supplied the bottling line with k-meta rinsed bottles, two people manned the Enolmatic fillers, one person topped off each bottle to the perfect level, one person was on the corker, one person rinsed and dried each bottle, and one person handled stacked the cases and marked each case with the year, varietal, and person who owns it.
Along the way, some of the wine did "accidently" spill into our mouths. The 2016 merlot and petit sarah are absolutely outstanding. I am actually thinking of putting them into competition (I had given up competitions a number of years ago).
After bottling, it took us just 30 minutes to get everything washed and put away. Then it was time to form all the chairs into a circle to socialize and do a little sipping. At 5 pm, I got dinner started (grilled chicken, noodles, potato salad, and a nice garden salad to boot. We spent most of the evening just having a great old time.
Here is a pic of most of the crew...
And a "artistic shot" taken in the winery during our "post bottle circle". We had emptied the fillers reservoirs into flasks for immediate consumption...
and a shot I took during dinner ... Hands up if you like my chicken!!!!
Folks, it was a great time spent with family and friends. The kind of time that make one glad to be alive.
