Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/670021
or some winery owners, own- ing a bottling line can be a tense relationship. Chris Pear- mund of Virginia's Pearmund Cellars refers to the mobile bottling line he assembled and operated in the 1990s as his Italian mistress: "Every time you were nice to her, she spat in your face, and every time you were fed up and ready to throw her in the junk pile, she did some- thing really sweet and loved you to death. You never really understood BY JANICE CESSNA her." He does note that stationary lines are more reliable, whereas mobile ones need constant readjust- ment due to the nature of having to move them around. R e g a r d l e s s o f h o w y o u f e e l about bottling lines, if you need to invest in one, Maggie Kruse of Jordan Vineyard & Winery in S o n o m a C o u n t y r e m i n d s p u r- chasers it starts with doing some homework. "Make sure the bot- tling line is a good fit for the size of your winery and the timing you need to bottle in. Then go look at them and talk to the people who run them every single day. See what they'd do differently with laying out their line," she says. The crew at Jordan researched and selected equipment for its upgrade years before they actu- a l l y p u r c h a s e d . " We d e f i n i t e l y looked at all the options. Ultimate- ly, we ended up choosing the new line because we really liked the filler and filler tip design, as well as the integration through all the machines," says Kruse. C a r e f u l c o n s i d e r a t i o n i s r e q u i r e d f o r s e l e c t i o n , m a i n t e n a n c e a n d h a n d l i n g o f y o u r b o t t l i n g l i n e . Dream Machines 5 2 V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T | M a y - J u n e 2 016 w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m The amount of automa- tion on a bottling line depends on a winery's size, needs and budget. [Photo courtesy of Jordan Vineyard & Winery]