There are many different techniques available to bottle wine. We chose to bottle by hand and to bottle under stelvin cap. The bottling process itself was quite simple. The photo above shows the bottling team. Jen (auge) with the Nitrogen-gun, Andrew (auge), Allan (auge), Charlotte( the Lane) , Ben (the lane) and Dave (auge).Clean bottles were gassed with nitrogen to displace any oxygen. Nitrogen is heavier than oxygen, so sits in the bottle. Nitrogen is inert, therefore should not have any reductive or oxidative effects on the wine. Wine is then hand-filled, using the gun that can be seen in the photo above. Next step, the levels are adjusted with a micro-pipette, bottles are wiped dry and a stelvin is added using the stelvinator. It is important that the bottle-heads are dried properly, prior to applying the stelvin cap, so that no excess wine can sit their and oxidise, leaving an unpleasant aroma when the stelvin is removed later in the restaurant. Which brings us to the photo below showing our first bottle of pinot grigio; charlotte (the lane), ben (the lane), james (auge)and allan (auge).
Prior to bottling, the pinot grigio had been racked from barrel (1month in new french oak) and stored in stainless steel. The wine was fined, using a clay called bentonite and cold stabilised. Bentonite like all clays is negatively charged. Why add this to a wine? The negatively charged clay attracts any free proteins (positively charged) that exist in the wine, causing these to precipitate to the bottom of the tank. This is done to avoid a haze forming in the wine, should the wine be exposed somewhere in its life to higher temperatures. Proteins unfold at higher temperatures which can cause a haze. I did not use this process in the rose but was happy to work together with the Lane and their philosophies on bottling. We trialed a few other fining agents including the milk protein cassein, the fish-gut derivative protein called ising glass and a number of synthetic, negatively charged polymers. Each of these acts on the wine in different ways, removing phenolics (tannins), proteins. As always I preferred to leave the wine as it was, the fining agents were too strongly removing the real character of this wine, especially the crunchy phenolics on the finish which I have been chasing.
The other stabilisation, cold stabilisation, is where a wine is chilled down to four degrees C. At this temperature any excess potassium crystals (usually in the form of tartrates) precipitate. This process can be catalysed by adding cream of tartar to the wine which acts as a seed for the other tartrates to bind to. Tartrates are only removed for cosmetic purposes, to avoid the formation of "wine-diamonds" in the bottom of the bottle. We did not add any cream of tartar and the process was done by leaving the stainless steel barrel outside, in the freezing Adelaide Hills air for a few nights.
The final picture above shows the good chow that came our way, half way through bottling. The Lane not only produces awesome wines but also has a great dining establishment where chef Glenn Carr masters the kitchen, see website for details.
