This weekend is a busy one for Le Garage (pronounced - the garage).  The events began on Thursday (yesterday) with the fundraiser for The Freckled Strawberry in Radnor.  Today is The Cheesiest Happy Hour and then off to Suburban Restaurant tonight for a meet the winemaker dinner where I am the winemaker. 

Being an introvert, meet the winemaker is apt to suck the life out of me! Come Saturday, I will be pale and drained but will wear great earrings to The Jeweled Warrior’s first Anniversary Celebration.  The preparation for this weekend has already begun. 

My friend, Michele, does all the labeling and bottle finishing for Le Garage.  The Gaffer hasn’t gotten to her yet for labeling, so I worked on that myself this week.  We use a heat gun to shrink the capsules at the top of each bottle.  Since there is only one heat gun, I decided to use a pan of boiling water for the Gaffer capsules, and it is working perfectly! 

I fill a large pan almost to the top with water.  Leaving the bottles in the case, I slide a capsule on the top of each bottle.  When the water is boiling, I remove a bottle from the case, put my finger on the bottom of the capsule to hold it in place, and dip the tip of the bottle with the capsule into the water.  This adheres the capsule so that when I submerge it entirely in the water I don’t burn my fingers.  Once one case is finished, I take a clean towel, dry and polish each bottle before adding the label.  Within 5 minutes I had two cases of wine ready for labeling with capsules intact.

The labeler itself is nothing more than a wooden cradle where the bottle lays and there is a little strip of foam on the side of the cradle that is used to ensure the front label and the back label are at the same height on the bottle.  The person who created this ingenious, simple mechanism is very wealthy now and everyone using it is kicking themselves for not coming up with the idea in the first place.    

The bus has been loaded and I’ve already made the trip to Radnor and back home.  This weekend’s activities hold a little for everyone.  Happy hour at Birchrun Hills, a 5-course meal at Suburban Restaurant, and Jewelry shopping at the Jeweled Warrior; all followed by more wine, more cheese, and feet up for the rest of the weekend! 

Peace out!

Sharon