It takes our whole family a whole day to bottle a batch of wine.  With Robert in Germany, we called a friend of the family, Jeff Holloway, to help when we bottled the St. Pepin.

Here’s how it all works. Bill handles the bottles at the beginning and the end of the line. He dumps the bottles onto the table for Jeff’s easy accessibility. Jeff picks up two bottles at a time and turns them upside down on the sparger.  The sparger does two things: it rinses the bottles out with purified water and then sparges them with nitrogen. Brandon takes the bottles from Jeff two at a time and fits them on to the 6-spout filler. The filler tank fills the bottles with exactly the right volume of wine.

Brandon hands the full bottles to Tammi, who places a metal screw cap on each bottle. She hands the bottles to Anne who uses the capper machine to attach the screw caps, one bottle at a time. She sets the bottle on the platform, presses the buttons, and the capper mechanically crimps the cap onto the bottle.

Anne hands the bottle to Amanda, who puts it on the labeler. She turns the crank to put on the front label, adjusts the bottle, and turns the crank again to apply the back label.

She hands the bottles to Bill who puts them back into the box and stacks the boxes on the pallet.

That’s it! Every bottle of Soldier Creek Wine is lovingly touched be 6 pairs of hands!

P.S. I didn’t tell you about the two hours of cleaning and sanitizing before we actually bottle and the two hours of cleaning and sanitizing after we’re finished. That could be a post on its own. Luckily for us, we can have a glass of wine at the end of the day to celebrate our hard work!

Happy National Sibling Day!

Recently, we (Rob, Anne and Amanda) went through some family photos to recreate for Dad’s (Bill) birthday. The afternoon turned into a silly laughter-fest. We aren’t sure that we’ve changed at all since the original photos were taken!

We will always cherish our times together on the farm. Enjoy!

 

 

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it can be difficult and overwhelming to choose the perfect Thanksgiving Wine to go with your signature dish.

At Soldier Creek Winery, our family favorite is our 2013 Frontenac Gris ($17). With its intense citrus and honey flavors, high acidity, and just a touch of sweetness, it complements both turkey and our favorite side dishes, including tart cranberry sauce and marshmallow sweet potatoes.

Come get yours this week!

 

 

 

After years of hard work and preparation, we are excited to announce we will be open on Friday, July 11!

We are so excited to show you what we have been working on. We have 5 wines to release with our opening:

• La Crescent ~ semi-sweet white
• Frontenac Gris ~ semi-sweet white
• Brianna ~ sweet white
• St. Pepin ~ dry white
• St. Croix ~ sweet red

Stop by to taste and chat with us!

A beautiful day for a bike ride oftentimes equates to a beautiful view of the vineyard. Photos courtesy of Megan Secor.