Bottling operations at many northern hemisphere wineries have recently ended to make room for the new harvest. To give you an idea of how a winery bottling line operates, below is a description of each station in the bottling process:

1. Fluorescent Light: Located at the beginning of the line, this light is used to check empty bottles for defects in the glass. Catching these defects before the wine is bottled decreases material waste.

2. Purger, Filler & Corker:
A. Purger: Inverts the bottles and fills them with nitrogen. The nitrogen pushes the oxygen out so that when the wine is filled it is not exposed to oxygen.
B. Filler: Automatically fills the wine to the right level.
C. Corker: A quick vacuum removes any remaining nitrogen or oxygen left in a bottle resulting in negative pressure; then, in one swift motion, a cork is inserted.

3. Fluorescent Light: The bottles pass by another fluorescent light to check again for any bottle damage that may have occurred during bottling.

4. Foiler: This machine drops a foil onto the neck of the bottle then tightens the foil to the bottle through a series of rotating rollers.

5. Laser: This machine laser inscribes the date and time onto each bottle. This was required by the FDA after 9/11 to enable product tracking down to the minute. With this we can track a batch of wine down to a 30 second interval.

6. Labeling Line: This is the newest addition to our line. The labeling machine feeds front and back labels onto the bottling line where tiny vacuum holes hold the non-sticky sides of the labels. The bottle then rolls across both labels at the same time ensuring an even application every time.

7. Packing / Checking Station: This is a manned station where someone will physically check each and every bottle for mistakes. They will then put 12 bottles into each case and pass the box along to the time stamper.

8. Time Stamper: This machine puts a time and date stamp onto the outside of case.

9. Case Labeler: Since each box is relatively similar in size and color we attach a label identical to the wine in the box. This allows for easy identification while on the pallet.

10. Case Sealing Station: This is another manned station where the person uses a "gun" with special glue to seal the cases. The sealed case is then transferred to the pallet positioner, also called the "lazy susan".

11. Lazy Susan: This piece of equipment starts at about waist height and lowers as the weight of the pallet increases. It also rotates to decrease the amount of distance you need to walk around the pallet to place the case. This prevents injury by minimizing the amount of strain on your back from lifting and bending with heavy cases of wine.

12. Pallet Wrapper: Once the pallet is full (usually 52-60 cases depending on size of bottles and dimension of cases) the entire pallet is taken by forklift to the pallet wrapper, an automatic wrapping machine.

Running at approximately 70 bottles per minute, a bottling line can bottle and package more than 2,000 cases in a single day.