Bottling in advance of moving

[MJD]

I have recently found out that I’ll be making a cross country move from Oregon to Massachusetts sometime this summer, probably June or July.


From the 2017 harvest, I have 15 gallons of Pinot Grigio, 10 gallons of Cab Sauv, and 11 gallons of Pinot Noir. I’m seeking advice on bottling in advance of the move. Transporting entire carboys will be problematic in this scenario.

The PG will already be bottled around May.

I’ve put both reds through MLF and have racked once on each and have added oak cubes to each...both are in glass carboys.

I would obviously like the wine to come out as good as possible under the constraint of having to bottle much sooner than normal. Are there any tips you can provide on steps to take between now and then (outside normal winemaking procedure) and any input on how this might affect the wine longer term? I’m curious to know if it’ll require more bottle aging as a counterbalance to the decreased time in carboy.

As an aside....including the 2017 vintage, I’ll have around 400-500 bottles to transport. Any good ideas on how to pack those bottles?

Thanks all.

 

[Johnd]

I have recently found out that I’ll be making a cross country move from Oregon to Massachusetts sometime this summer, probably June or July.


From the 2017 harvest, I have 15 gallons of Pinot Grigio, 10 gallons of Cab Sauv, and 11 gallons of Pinot Noir. I’m seeking advice on bottling in advance of the move. Transporting entire carboys will be problematic in this scenario.

The PG will already be bottled around May.

I’ve put both reds through MLF and have racked once on each and have added oak cubes to each...both are in glass carboys.

I would obviously like the wine to come out as good as possible under the constraint of having to bottle much sooner than normal. Are there any tips you can provide on steps to take between now and then (outside normal winemaking procedure) and any input on how this might affect the wine longer term? I’m curious to know if it’ll require more bottle aging as a counterbalance to the decreased time in carboy.

As an aside....including the 2017 vintage, I’ll have around 400-500 bottles to transport. Any good ideas on how to pack those bottles?

Thanks all.

I’d imagine that you’ll be ok bottling before you move, long as your wine is clear and free of CO2, and you’re finished tinkering with it.

As far as moving, that’s 50 cases or so, weighing 2500 lbs +/-. I’d put them in case boxes with dividers, stack them on a pallet, shrink wrap the whole block together, and haul it in my pickup when it wasn’t too hot. Or I’d hire somebody with insurance to do it for me.

 

[NorCal]

When I bottle before a year, I’ll do a .5 micron, to help minimize sediment. Not sure the proper way to move it, but that time of year highway 80 could be quite toasty.

 

[MJD]

I like the shrink wrap approach. I’ll have to look into that.

NorCal, I’ve never used a filter before and typically use bentonite. Any thoughts on if that approach will have reduced effectiveness due to less time available to drop sediment naturally?

 

[Ajmassa]

I like the shrink wrap approach. I’ll have to look into that.

NorCal, I’ve never used a filter before and typically use bentonite. Any thoughts on if that approach will have reduced effectiveness due to less time available to drop sediment naturally?

Don’t think you could really say “reduced effectiveness” in your case. It might be less effective than dropping naturally over time, but it also might be more effective. Sounds like he means that the only certainty is filtering before bottling early is better than not filtering.
My little plate filter has 3 filter levels available. The course/rough (5-7 micron), polish/fine (1-2 micron), and sterile (.2-.5 micron). Ive only used the rough and polish pads and they worked so well the wine was much lighter after. I Was nervous the .5 micron could strip too much ‘goodness’ as a byproduct.

 

[Ajmassa]

I think I misread that. Were you Asking if bentonite would be comparable to natural dropping ?
If used at 9 months in July I’d think would be cool. Bentonite grabs only the negative charged solids (or + ions. I forget) . Another agent that grabs both positive and negative would probably be better if concerned and not filtering.
Doubt it would even matter at 9 months anyway. Anytime I get dropout that late I just assume I got sloppy racking.

 

[MJD]

You’ve partially answered my question. I was curious if bentonite (or any clearing agent) would be less effective since there was a reduced time for gravity to do its thing. I’m only a couple vintages into this hobby, so my sample size for observing it is small. Sounds like it shouldn’t be an issue.

Bentonite has been my go-to and hasn’t stripped too much color or flavor in my usage, but I’m open to other suggestions if anyone has them. Thanks!

 

[bkisel]

Are you moving them yourself? When I used a moving company 3 years ago they would move guns, with the proper paper work, but not wine. I was told however that boxes labeled "marinate" would not be an issue. Rater than bend/break the rules I moved my wine myself from CT to PA. They were in regular cardboard wine 750ml and 1.5l boxes.

 

[balatonwine]

Bulk wine is often racked into plastic (HDPE) containers for transport. You can do the same if you wish on a smaller scale. 60 L (~16 gal) for the Pinot grigio, 30 L (~8 gal) for the others. Top up airspace if necessary. Leftover that did not fit you can bottle. But bottles are heavy and add unnecessary transportation costs and bulk, so another option would be something like AstraPouch.

 

[MJD]

I’ll be moving myself on this one. It would be ideal to move all the wine personally, but between dogs and other valuables not put in a POD or Uhaul pod or what have you, it doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for the booze.

I had a look into the HDPE containers and they look like they could be a viable option for a fair bit of the wine. Thanks for the suggestion.