Miker wrote "I keep seeing the rumor here that iodophor is ok for beer
making but
not wine, but no one seems to be able to back this up with any facts or
references. Anyone?"

There's nothing wrong with using iodophor to sanitize wine bottles. Use the
proper dilution, drain well and all you have left is a few drops of dilute
iodophor at most. In beer making (oops...almost used the brewing
word...wouldn't want to confuse anyone) circles there have been plenty of
experiments conducted to see if iodophor residue can be detected. The short
answer is no.

Now, I've observed an interesting thing with iodophor. In the past I would
sanitize beer bottles, empty and let the bottles drip dry overnight. The
next evening the bottles were totally dry. I would prime and fill beer into
these bottles. My usual routine is to drink a beer and immediately rinse
the bottle so they don't build up residue and become hard to clean (same for
wine bottles). I noticed a thin film on the bottle wall of iodophor
sanitized bottles that had been dried overnight. This "problem" was traced
back to the complete drying...a thin film of iodophor remained in these
bottles. It's unsightly to pour a beer and have flakes of film end up in
your otherwise perfect pilsner. So, now days, when I use iodophor, I treat
the bottles, drain well and fill immediately with beer. That way any
iodophor residue is dissolved in the beer and no film is attached to the
bottle wall.

Sorry to bring up a beer subject but the I expect the same "problem" would
develop if you happen to treat wine bottles with iodophor and let them
totally dry before filling with wine.

Actually I don't sanitize wine bottles at all anymore. If you clean wine
bottles well after use and store them inverted, the alcohol, low pH and
sulfite is adequate to protect your wine.

Bill Frazier
Olathe, Kansas