>
> That sounds promising. If you have a very cold freezer, you could
> probably go with just the alcohol unless you were handling a lot of
> bottles.
>
>
> Andy

The total will be about 1000 bottles. We will probably do a limited
amount of disgorging at first. Would be nice to knock out a majority
of them in one swat. If it's not already obvious, this is our first
try at methode' champagnoise. Though I'm versed at the process from
doing it at another winery, they had some decent equipment. So, much
like the rest of my winemaking, we have to make do for now.

Among the 'junk' that was here when we arrived was what I'm thinking
must be a rack to hold the inverted champagne bottles into the ice:

http://peacefulbend.com/test/images/disgorgerack.jpg

I'm pretty sure that this came from an old Catholic Seminary in St.
Louis called St. Stanislaus. It can hold four cases at a time, so I
can imagine that the necks would freeze in that amount of time. We'll
place the riddled bottles into a chest freezer before starting the
operation to get the wine temp as close to freezing as feasible. This
alone will limit the volume we can disgorge at a time, but there's no
real hurry for this wine. It's more for fun than profit.



clyde
Steelville, Missouri, USofA
http://www.PeacefulBend.com