Labeling Wine Bottles

I have bottled peach wine, pear wine, blackberry wine and blueberry wine this season. I still have muscadine wine aging in the carboy, but is not yet ready to bottle. Once I have the wine in the bottles I need to label it so that I will know what type of wine it is. Also labeling the wine bottles dress up the wine and makes it look more attractive.

The first thing I do is to decide on a design for my wine labels. On the wine labels I want to put the name of my farm, also a picture of the actual fruit that I took of the fruit at the time of harvest, I also want to name the wine, and lastly add an alcohol warning label so that it looks professional. Once the design is made I print them out.

I found these labels at my local Office Max store. The template can easily be found online at www.avery.com.

For my labels I take a photo of the actual fruit I use at harvesting time. I also develop a name for each wine and the year I harvested the fruit and began the wine making process.

Next, I need to decide on the color of the foil shrink wrap that covers the cork of the wine bottle and part of the neck of the wine bottle. I use the color in the wine labels, the color of the wine bottles, and the color of the wine to help choose a foil color that would complement.

The bottle top or shrink wraps that I use for the bottles.

I am deciding which color of shrink wrap to use for the blackberry wine.

Besides the wine labels and foil tops I need a hair blow dryer and a corker to help me dress up the wine bottles. I use the wine corker to ensure that the corks are even or almost even to the top of the wine bottle. This allows the foil shrink wrap to lie smoothly. The hair blow dryer is used to heat the foil shrink wrap so that it shrinks to conform to the bottle.

I use the corker to make sure that the wine cork is setting even with the top edge of the wine bottle.

This is how I want the top of the wine cork to come even to the top edge of the wine bottle.

The shrink wrap is placed over the cork.

I use an old hair dryer to heat the shrink wrap, so that it conforms to the top of the bottle. I start from the top blowing the hot air down and then moving to the sides until it seems some what even and smooth. This part does take some experience in how long to apply the heat and how close to get the hair dryer to the shrink wrap. It does take some trial and error.

The shrink wrap has been successfully applied.

Once the bottles have the foil shrink wrap it is now time to put on the labels. I use different sizes of masking tape tubes as a guide to evenly lay the wine labels on the bottles. I place the bottle inside of the masking tape tube and use the top edge of the tube as my guide to lay the bottom edge of the wine label. I want the labels to lay flat and smooth against the bottles, so I smooth the wine labels with my fingers working from the middle of the label towards the outside edges. This method allows me to have a smooth label with no wrinkles or air bubbles.

I use different sizes of round cardboard tape forms to help me put on the labels evenly.

I sit the bottle inside of the cardboard tape form and use the top edge of the cardboard tape form as a straight edge to lay the bottom edge of the wine label.

I press the middle of the wine label on first and then use my fingers to smooth from the middle of the label then working outwards toward the edge.

The wine label is on.

Once all of the labels have been applied it is now time to store the wine until I am ready to consume it. I will start drinking it in about a month. I store the wine in a hall closet. I emptied out the closet and added shelves to hold the wine at a laying down position, so that the wine cork stays in contact with the wine. It is amazing to see all of the wine bottles ready to be enjoyed. I wish I had a real wine cellar!