Most people see a bottle of wine on a shelf and never think about what actually goes into the process of bottling. Hopefully, we can provide a little insight into a day on the “line.”

We arrive at the winery at 6:00 a.m. to prepare the wine for bottling. A full panel of analysis is run to ensure quality and standards are met. At 7:00 a.m., the 8–10 person crew arrives, and the bottling process begins. 

It starts with bottles being dumped onto a conveyor. Nitrogen gas blows out any box dust, then fills the bottles. The bottles are then filled with wine and corked seconds later. Foils are hand-applied, then spun onto the bottles. Finally, labels are applied, and the bottles are packed back into the cases by hand.

From the moment we begin bottling to the last bottle off the line each day, monitoring and sampling are ongoing to ensure every bottle looks and tastes as good as the last. This may seem simple enough, but inevitably, things break, run out, or just plain go wrong. Labels sometimes end up crooked, or bottles aren’t filled completely. These issues are spotted quickly and corrected. 

At noon, the staff takes a well-deserved lunch break. We stop bottling around 3:00 p.m., and the crew goes home by 3:30.

There isn’t a single bottle that passes by us on the bottling line without a thought for our customers. We often wonder where each bottle will go across the nation – or what special occasion it might be a part of. Hopefully, the next time you pick up a bottle of JUSTIN wine, you’ll appreciate the hard work behind the bottling process.