Bottling at Silver Horse Winery

We got invited to a bottling session at Silver Horse Winery…http://www.silverhorse.com/.  Our good friends at First Crush Winemaking were there, too!  http://firstcrushwinemaking.com/.  So here’s the lowdown: a huge shiny semi-truck pulls up to the winery, rolls up it’s side doors and reveals an entire bottling line, complete with built-in stereo system and helpful staff, for your bottling enjoyment.

Video 1 of 3 –

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=168Je6kNBFE[/youtube]

It’s an incredible experience and we got to see a whole new part of the winemaking process.  The assembly line starts with a guy feeding empty bottles in by the case, then the bottles get filled with the wine…they roll along into the next machine, which corks them, then through the foil placement station and into the machine that seals the foil onto the bottle, then right along through the label sticking reel and into the hands of somebody eagerly awaiting to fill case boxes with beautiful new bottles of glorious wine!

Video 2 of 3 –

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSNisQHbb2c[/youtube]

We had an awesome time and got to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes at the wineries.  All of the hub-bub and excitement…there’s never a dull moment, palates of full wine cases being hauled into the storage room by the forklifts, wine being fed into the bottling row by huge tubes from the barrels, and each person knowing their part in the process.  It’s a fine-tuned machine, all fed by cold beers and bloody marys!

Video 3 of 3 –

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqJefwr8tTU[/youtube]

Cheers all, as you sip that glass of wine now you know a little more about how it came to be in your thirsty hands!  Makes one appreciate and enjoy it that much more, doesn’t it?