Getting Ready To Bottle Wine

     Today I thought "I'm going to bottle the elderberry wine", forgetting that there is a little preparation before hand.  Unless you buy brand new wine bottles, the used bottles need a little prepping.  Old labels need to come off, and they need to be sanitized and dried.  This really needs to be done before the day you want to bottle.  Once you really get going on this wine making thing, all the old labels will be off of your bottle supply, and it gets easier.

Soaking the labels off old wine bottles.  Some come off easier than others.
Sometimes I wonder if they use super glue! 
 On those I give up, and make sure that bottle won't be a gift or a fair entry. 
Next time round I'll work at it again.
I'm getting 15 bottles ready for 3 gallons of elderberry wine.

Next I fill up a sink full of One Step sanitizer.  1 TBL. to 1 gallon of water.
It says on the label that you don't have to rinse it......but I do.
Buy it at your wine supply store.

The bottles get soaked in the One Step for a bit.  I will turn them because there is always an
 air bubble inside.....just making sure it's all sanitized.  Notice the one bottle that
I struggled with the label.  As long as the inside is clean, I'm not too worried.

The bottle drying rack. 
Now this is one helpful gadget.
The bottles dry inside really easy and there's no clanking
around of bottles.  It cost about $30, but worth every penny.
I bought it at the wine supply store.

     The next post will be on bottling the wine.  Tomorrow I start 3 days of becoming a "Master Canner" through our extension office.  I'll get the post off as soon as I can :-).

.....dr momi