I recently toured a winery and was told that they take the wine out of the
primary, then bottle it and let it finish aging in the bottles. I thought
you took it out of the primary and put it into a secondary before bottling
it.

I have a gallon of choke cherry wine that I put in to the primary for about
10 days, then squeezed it to remove the skins and seeds. Then I ran it
through a jelly juice filter several times. Then I put it back into the
gallon jug with an airlock. It seemed to quit working within a week or so.
I have left it alone for about 2 months now, and wonder if I could bottle
it.

I bought some corks that have a lid on them that you pull up and apparently
remove air and tighten up at the same time. Will this be enough, or will it
leave enough air in the bottle to cause my wine to turn to vinager? Will
filling the bottles nearly to the cork before putting it in do better? If I
would fill the bottles, then set them in a pan of hot water to expand the
wine, before corking it help me remove the air?

I would appreciate any help you can give. I have made several batches
before using concentrated grape juice and water, and put a balloon on the
gallon jugs, and did OK. This is the first time I have tried doing it with
real fruit.

Dwayne