Winery Bottling Checklist: How to Run an Error-Free Bottling Day with Melissa Hackett, Owner of Wine Unfiltered Consulting
Melissa Hackett spent 16 years working across 11 wineries in two states before starting Wine Unfiltered Consulting, and her last winery role put her in charge of everything: production, harvest, wholesale, DTC, and events. That breadth is exactly why she became a consultant. She had seen enough of what goes wrong when different parts of a winery are not coordinated — most visibly on bottling day, when a problem that started weeks earlier becomes a crisis the morning of — and she built her practice around helping wineries close those gaps before they turn into emergencies.
She sat down with Lauren Heindel to walk through the most important foundations for an error-free bottling run: how to build a preparation timeline that actually works, what belongs in a bottling SOP, what wine readiness means and when to confirm it, and which technologies reduce the most common sources of human error.
The most persistent source of bottling problems is not inexperience or inattention. It is a planning mindset that treats bottling as a moment rather than a process. Wineries that approach bottling day with a “just in time” mentality, ordering materials, finalizing blends, and making last-minute adjustments in the days before the run, routinely arrive at bottling with things that are not ready and no time to fix them. The gap between a smooth bottling run and a chaotic one is almost always set weeks in advance.
In this episode, we cover:
Why a "just in time" approach to bottling leads to avoidable bottlenecks, and what a proactive staging process looks like instead
The three-phase bottling timeline: what to accomplish 8 to 12 weeks out, two weeks out, and one to two days before bottling
What a winery bottling SOP covers, from chemistry parameters and compliance checks to equipment startup protocols and quality control assignments
How to confirm wine readiness the day before bottling rather than the morning of, and what that process should include
The technology tools Melissa recommends for wineries at different production scales, from inspection eyes on semi-automated lines to inline dissolved oxygen monitoring
Why staging dry goods in the right order and confirming the bottling sequence with your cellar team the day before prevents the most common day-of scrambles
Why “just in time” produces bottling problems
The first thing Melissa looks at when she consults on bottling efficiency is how a winery stages its materials. At the majority of facilities she has worked with over her career, the pattern is the same: supplies are ordered close to the bottling date, blend decisions run up to the deadline, and final adjustments happen the morning of the run. This is the “just in time” approach, and it is the single most common source of the mistakes and delays that make bottling stressful.
The reason this mindset persists is that it works until it does not. A supplier who ships on time, a blend that is stable, a COLA approval that comes through without delay — the just-in-time approach looks fine when every variable behaves. But when one thing slips, there is no time built in to absorb it. The bottling date does not move because the capsules arrived late or the label is still waiting for TTB approval.
I tend to advocate for a proactive approach where, you know, your bottles, closures, labels and the wine itself are organized and staged well in advance. It not only allows for thorough quality checks and making sure your materials are all in line, but it'll help make bottling smooth and error free the day of.
Melissa Hackett , Owner
Wine Unfiltered Consulting
What changes when a winery shifts to a proactive staging approach is that quality checks become possible. When dry goods are on-site two weeks before bottling, there is time to notice a label is printed incorrectly, a closure lot is wrong, or a capsule shipment is short. Catching those problems before bottling day means they are logistics issues. Catching them the morning of means they are emergencies.
Before your next bottling, map out when each material is expected to arrive relative to the bottling date. Bottles, closures, labels, capsules, and cases all have their own lead times and their own suppliers. If any of them are arriving within a week of the run, there is no buffer for a shipping delay or a quality issue. Knowing your lead times is the first step to building a preparation window that actually works.
A three-phase timeline for bottling preparation
Melissa breaks bottling preparation into three phases based on how much lead time each category of work requires. The phases do not overlap cleanly with calendar dates because every winery’s production schedule is different, but the logic of what needs to happen in each phase is consistent.
The long-term phase covers the work that requires the most lead time: eight to twelve weeks before bottling. This is when label revisions need to go through the design process, and when COLA submissions should be in to the TTB to allow for government processing delays. It is also when dry goods orders should go to suppliers, because lead times on bottles, closures, and packaging materials can stretch to months depending on what is happening in the supply chain. Finalizing blends and beginning stability adjustments also belongs in this window, because the wine needs time to respond to any additions before the question of readiness is even asked.
The medium-term phase is two weeks out. By this point, the final blend should be together, all additions should be in, and stabilization should be complete or underway. This is also when the bill of materials should be built in the production management system, creating a document that captures both the composition and the specific dry goods allocated to the run.
Long term would be thinking about, do I need to update my labels? Do I need to submit for a COLA? What are the lead times with my vendors for my dry goods? An eight to twelve week process in advance would be ideal. And then short term is like the days leading up to it — one to two days. I think this is probably the most critical point and one that gets overlooked the easiest.
Melissa Hackett , Owner
Wine Unfiltered Consulting
The short-term phase, one to two days before bottling, is where the most important confirmations happen and where most wineries are least prepared. This is when QA/QC sheets should be finalized, pallet tags and case stickers confirmed, dry goods staged in the order they will be used, and the bottling sequence communicated to the cellar team so every tank is prepared in the right order.
Build the bill of materials in your production system at the two-week mark, not the day before. The bill of materials is useful for costing and for compliance, but it is also a practical staging document: it tells you exactly what dry goods are allocated to each wine, which makes the short-term staging step much faster and reduces the chance of reaching for the wrong closure or label on the day of the run.
Building a bottling SOP: what the “bottling bible” should include
Melissa uses the term “bottling bible” for the packet of documents that governs how a bottling run is conducted. The name reflects the intent: it is the single source of truth for the run, covering every check that needs to happen and every standard that needs to be met, so that the outcome does not depend on any one person’s memory.
The parameters sheet is the foundation. It captures the chemistry markers the wine must meet before going into bottle: free SO2, CO2, dissolved oxygen, heat and cold stability, and whether filtration has been completed. The appellation and alcohol are confirmed here, along with the labeling materials and their approval status. These are the standards against which the wine will be evaluated before the run starts.
Kind of call it like the bottling bible. You'd have your parameters sheet. So that would be anything from the chemistry markers that you want for your wine, your free SO2, your CO2, your DOs. Is it heat and cold stable? Has it been filtered? And then like the compliance side — the labeling alcohol, the appellation, the materials being used for that, and if it had been approved.
Melissa Hackett , Owner
Wine Unfiltered Consulting
The quality control section of the SOP defines who is responsible for each check and at what point in the line. Melissa recommends separate QC checkpoints for the operator running the bottling equipment, and a final check at the palletizer where someone opens a finished case to verify fill level, label placement, and closure integrity before the run continues. Equipment startup documentation covers sanitation, ATP swab results, bubble point tests, and nitrogen flow and pressure settings. All of this goes into the same packet, along with a copy of the label and the case sticker for the run.
Make sure the bottling bible is reviewed by the team before every run, not just when it is first created. Melissa's point is that a document nobody reads is not a compliance tool. A short pre-bottling walkthrough with the cellar team, even fifteen minutes, creates shared understanding of what the day's standards are and who is responsible for each checkpoint. That conversation is what converts the SOP from a policy document into an operational tool.
Confirming wine readiness: what to check before bottling day
Melissa is direct about when wine readiness should be confirmed: the day before bottling, not the morning of. The just-in-time version of readiness, where chemistry is still being checked and adjustments are still going in as the line is warming up, is what produces the panicked bottling runs that nobody wants. By the time the line is running, it should not be possible to stop it because the wine was not ready.
The readiness checklist covers whether the wine has been filtered, whether it is heat and cold stable, whether all adjustments have been made and had time to integrate, and whether the wine is at the correct temperature to enter the bottle without condensation forming on the glass and compromising label adhesion. It confirms that the lab has signed off on the current numbers, whether the testing was done internally or by an outside lab. It assigns ownership for the final sensory evaluation, which matters particularly in larger teams where it can otherwise be assumed someone else has done it.
When I think of wine readiness, I ideally think it should be confirmed the day before bottling. That doesn't lead to those delays and the bottlenecks. I'll run through those sheets — has it been filtered? Is it stable? All of the gases and adjustments made that needed to happen. Has the lab confirmed all of these numbers?
Melissa Hackett , Owner
Wine Unfiltered Consulting
Melissa also notes that filtration type for the day of bottling should be decided in advance, not improvised. Whether the run calls for a bug catcher, a final membrane filter, or another configuration depends on the wine and should be confirmed as part of the readiness check, not as the operator is setting up the line. She has seen a bottling run where the inspection eyes that catch missing corks were turned off without anyone noticing, resulting in a full case of bottles with wine seeping through the foil. Confirming equipment function as part of the pre-bottling walkthrough is how that kind of failure gets caught before it affects the run.
Assign one person to own the wine readiness sign-off. It does not need to be a formal document, but it should be a specific name. When everyone assumes someone else confirmed the wine is ready, readiness becomes a thing that nobody checked. A named sign-off, confirmed the day before, is the simplest version of this accountability structure.
Technology that reduces bottling errors
The right technology for a bottling line depends on the production scale. Melissa works across wineries of different sizes and recommends different tools at each level, but the principle is the same in every case: the goal is to catch errors that human attention misses, at the point in the line where they can still be corrected.
Smaller producers running semi-automated lines need good inspection eyes: sensors that detect a missing cork, a loose capsule, or an absent label as the bottle passes through. These lines typically require eight to ten people to operate, which means there are hands available for manual checks, but the volume of bottles moving through is still high enough that consistent human inspection is unreliable. The eyes are not optional infrastructure. They are what catches the failures that human attention cannot maintain across a full production day.
Medium to larger producers running fully automated monoblock lines can operate with three people, but the volume and speed make human quality checks nearly impossible without dedicated monitoring stations. Camera systems that inspect fill levels and closures in real time, and inline dissolved oxygen monitors that track pickup throughout the line, are standard equipment at this scale rather than optional upgrades.
FOSS is really like, that's like the Ferrari of your analyzers. Admeo — what I'd say is more of like the entry level, like a sedan, like everyone can afford it and use it.
Melissa Hackett , Owner
Wine Unfiltered Consulting
Beyond the line itself, lab analyzers shape how reliable bottling chemistry checks are. FOSS represents the high end of analyzer capability, offering speed and precision that supports high-volume operations. Admeo provides reliable analysis at a price point accessible to smaller producers. Inline dissolved oxygen monitoring through systems like Vivisimo allows real-time tracking of oxygen pickup as wine moves through the line, which is particularly valuable for wines where dissolved oxygen control is critical. ANITA STARS units can adjust pH and TA during filtration before the wine reaches the line. Production management platforms like InnoVint handle the documentation side: blending, bill of materials, bottling work orders, and the production movements that feed compliance reporting.
If your winery has inspection eyes on the line, build a startup check into the SOP that confirms they are functioning before the run begins. Melissa's example of the closure sensor that failed without anyone noticing, resulting in a case of bottles with cork-related defects, illustrates what happens when equipment checks are assumed rather than verified. A two-minute sensor test at startup is far less expensive than discovering the failure after a full pallet has been built.
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Frequently Asked Questions about Winery Bottling Checklists and Preparation
What should be on a winery bottling checklist? +
A winery bottling checklist covers wine readiness and dry goods staging. On the wine side, it confirms filtration status, heat and cold stability, all chemistry adjustments (free SO2, CO2, dissolved oxygen), correct bottling temperature, and lab sign-off on current numbers. On the dry goods side, it confirms that all materials — bottles, closures, labels, capsules, and cases — are on-site, staged in the correct bottling order, and matched to the right wine. Equipment startup checks including sanitation, ATP swab results, bubble point testing, and nitrogen flow settings belong on a separate sheet within the same bottling packet, along with QA/QC sheets and the case sticker for each wine in the run.
How far in advance should wineries prepare for bottling? +
Bottling preparation falls into three phases. The long-term phase is eight to twelve weeks before bottling and covers COLA submissions, dry goods orders, and beginning the final blend and stability work. The medium-term phase is two weeks before bottling and covers finalizing the blend, completing stability adjustments, and building the bill of materials in the production system. The short-term phase is one to two days before bottling and covers wine readiness confirmation, dry goods staging, QA/QC sheet preparation, and communicating the bottling sequence to the cellar team. Lead times for label approvals and dry goods vary significantly depending on suppliers and regulatory processing times, which is why eight to twelve weeks is the minimum realistic window for long-term planning.
What is wine readiness for bottling, and when should it be confirmed? +
Wine readiness for bottling means the wine has been filtered, is heat and cold stable, has had all chemistry adjustments made and integrated, is at the correct temperature for bottling, and has been confirmed by laboratory analysis. Readiness should be confirmed the day before bottling, not the morning of. Discovering on bottling day that the wine is not stable, that chemistry is still off, or that filtration is incomplete stops the line and creates exactly the bottleneck that pre-bottling checks are designed to prevent. Confirming readiness the prior day leaves time to address issues before the production crew is assembled and the line is warming up.
What technology do wineries use for bottling quality control? +
Winery bottling technology varies by production scale. Smaller producers on semi-automated lines rely on inspection eyes that detect missing closures, absent labels, or improper capsule application as bottles move through the line. Larger producers on fully automated lines use camera systems for real-time fill level and closure inspection. Lab analyzers like FOSS (high-end) and Admeo (accessible for smaller producers) support pre-bottling chemistry verification. Inline dissolved oxygen monitors like Vivisimo allow real-time tracking of oxygen pickup through the bottling line. ANITA STARS systems can adjust pH and TA during filtration before the wine reaches the line. Production management platforms handle blending, bill of materials, work orders, and the production movements that feed compliance reporting.
What are the most common mistakes on bottling day at a winery? +
The most common bottling day mistakes stem from insufficient preparation in the weeks before the run. They include wines that are not fully stable going into bottle, last-minute chemistry adjustments made while the line is running, dry goods that are staged out of order or missing entirely, and equipment failures that went undetected because startup checks were skipped. Mislabeling and incorrect closure application happen most often when materials are not staged in a clear sequence matched to the bottling order. Many of these mistakes are prevented by a bottling SOP that assigns responsibility for each check and confirms readiness the day before rather than the morning of the run.