Mosti Mondiale Bottling Day For MM LaBodega Port!

[ibglowin]

Well, its been bulk aging now for right at one year so figured it was time to bottle this bad boy! Ended up with 8 gallons of fortified heaven on earth. OMG, is this stuff to die for good. I made a double batch (6 gallons) of this a year ago. I actually added the included oak in primary/secondary, It spent one month in a brand new Vadai, then after I added the 6 bottles of Brandy to bring it up to 19% ABV I added some Tancor Grand Cru to bring the tannin back up after the Brandy thinned them out, then just for fun, another 2 ounces of French Med+ toast oak beans for 2 months. Its amazing, thats all I can say. (81) 375 splits was a lot of work but sooooooo worth it in the end.


Easily the MOST expensive kit I've ever done when you factor in the cost of the (2) kits, the 6 bottles of Brandy, the bottles, especially the ice wine bottles, corks, labels. Speaking of ice wine bottles, they were a PITA!!!! Ordered 3 cases of 12 and 2 of the cases were 1/4" too tall to fit into the Port Floor Corker. Wouldn't fit noway, no how.......

One case fit just barely. Had to use my hand corker for those 2 cases that wouldn't fit. First time I have ever used my hand corker. That thing doesn't insert corks worth a SHAT! I used #9 x 1.75" for long term storage. These will be some great Xmas presents for some lucky people. Definitely commercial quality stuff all the way.

 

[rhoffart]

Time to open that winery ... picture perfect.

 

[UBB]

Very nice! You're hired to apply my labels anytime you want!!

 

[wvbrewer]

That looks very nice. Great job..Those are beautiful bottles.

 

[Flem]

As usual, it looks great, Mike. Nice job.

 

[SouthernChemist]

Looks very nice! Nice idea with using the smaller bottles.

 

[Wade E]

You must have the other model Port floor corker. Mine is on its last leg now after probably 10'000's of thousnads of corks htrough mine and now its starting to take a chunk out of every cork going in. Ive never had a problem getting a Bellissima bottle in mine though. I still have about 12 bottle of mine left from 2007 and its really nice now. I almost dble the oak in mine also.

 

[Runningwolf]

Mike, great job! The bottles are beautiful. I have put about 25 cases of ice wine bottles through my Port. corker with no problem. Is your corker the red one and do you have 2 or 3 screws on top of it? Mine is red with 2 screws.

I remember George saying there was no way you could do these bottles in it and I argued that I do and so does everyone else I know.

 

[Rocky]

Really nice job, Mike. 'Asta looka profesh!

 

[ibglowin]

Thanks for the kudos everybody!

Dan, I bought mine new in 2009 from the LHBS in Santa Fe. It has 2 screws on top and a plastic iris. The box on the one that fit is not the same as the two that didn't fit. All of them were made in china....

Somebody sourced them from two different suppliers obviously. Just a hair taller but that made all the difference between fitting and not fitting.

Mike, great job! The bottles are beautiful. I have put about 25 cases of ice wine bottles through my Port. corker with no problem. Is your corker the red one and do you have 2 or 3 screws on top of it? Mine is red with 2 screws.

 

[ibglowin]

Forgot to say look at the height difference in the 1st and second pics of the ice wine bottles. The front ones are the ones that fit. The back ones with the flat black capsules are quite a bit taller.

 

[rob]

very nice, I never looked at your web page until now, way cool. Never saw a place to order???

 

[ibglowin]

Ha!

"private boutique" is fancy wordspeak for not commercial....

Someday perhaps!

very nice, I never looked at your web page until now, way cool. Never saw a place to order???