For wineries that have, or are looking to purchase, their own bottling line, there are a number of opportunities to reduce the amount of time and water used to clean and fill bottles.
Case Study: Bottling Line at Cave Spring Cellars
Cave Spring Cellars was looking for opportunities to improve their bottling operations. They were using a hot water chemical sanitation process that required a final rinse. By moving to steam sanitation they were able to significantly reduce the amount of water used by the bottling line and also reduced the amount of time required to prepare bottles for filling.
Use sanitizers that do not require a final rinse
Using steam instead of water-based sanitizers reduces both the amount of time and water needed to sanitize bottles.
Sanitization procedures should have set cleaning times or be automated
It is important to optimize bottling operations and having an automated or consistent process can improve consistency while reducing the amount of time and the volume of water used.
Nitrogen can be used to rinse bottles instead of water
Using nitrogen instead of water to rinse bottles can achieve the same cleaning requirements and reduce water consumption.
Recycle water used in bottle washing
Bottle washing can be conducted with closed-loop water circulation to allow for the reuse of hot water and chemicals.