Wine Bottles and Corks

I've lumped wine bottles and corks together because without either you can't bottle your wine. To bottle a typical batch of 23 liters of wine you'll need 30 - 750 ml bottles.Wine bottles come in different colours. Which colour you chose is totally up to your liking, the wine doesn't care. You'll find clear, green and red as common colours. Some bottles will have a "punt" on the bottom (a punt is an indent on the bottom of the bottle). You don't need a punt on your bottles.

Winemaking shops sell new bottles in cases of 12. I've bought new bottles and also used ones. I always keep wine bottles if I bought a commercial wine. When using old bottles just check them for chips and cracks, and sterilize them.

Corks come in many sizes but the most common size is #9. Obviously if you're bottle 30 bottles you'll need 30 corks. Make sure they aren't old and dirty. Having more corks on hand is a good thing in case you make a mistake.

The common length of corks is 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 inches. If you're going to consume your wine within say 4 months a 1 1/2 inch cork will do, but if you're going to age your wine for a year or longer you'll definitely need a 1 3/4 inch cork.

Wine Bottle Tree

Cleaning and sanitizing your wine bottles is imperative. But how do you drain and store your bottles so they don't pick up impurities. Well the simple answer is a wine bottle tree.

The wine bottle tree looks kind of weird but is totally practical. Once you've sanitized your bottles you just stick them on the tree and they drain and are ready to accept your wine.

What is great about the wine bottle tree is that you can put a bottle sulphiter on top. The bottle sulphiter sanitizes the bottles before you put them on the tree which is very convenient.