Between the Vines


Time, space and


money saved


Artusmobile bottling operation has grown with the B.C. industry, attracting customers both large and small. By Judie Steeves


B


ottles clink together as they hurry through the line, accepting a rinse, sparging, a fill ofwine and


finally, the closure. Labelled and capped, checked and re-


checked, they exit the Artusmobile bottling truck the sameway they came in, except instead of bare empties being dumped on the conveyor, they emerge ready to be boxed, completewithwine, finished closures of either cork or a screwcap, capsules and labels. Boxes are pushed down the conveyor


towaiting arms, then added to the load, ready forwrapping to be shipped.


Artus Mobile Bottling founder Norm Cole. It’s amiraculous transformation,


fromthe bulk agedwine in tanks to the final stage of a lengthy process that began a year or two earlierwith bud break in a vineyard. It’s the culmination of all that effort


by grape growers andwinemakers and their staff. Perhaps it iswhywinemakers hate


bottling,musesNormCole, the founder of ArtusMobile Bottling ofNaramata. “They can’t do anymore to thewine


once it’s in the bottle. They have no more control over it. And, they’re always the critic,” he comments. Cole expected his first clientswould


be some of themany newwineries starting up in B.C., but found at first it was the establishedwineries,which had been bottling elsewhere, or using old equipment, or just getting by, that became customers. “There’s quite a capital expense to put


in bottling equipment, and then you need the expertise to run it. You only run it a couple of days a year and a huge


part is the trouble-shooting…” Particularly if you’re closingwith


screwcaps, you really need to know what you’re doing. “Cork hasmore forgiveness to it,” explains Cole. Artuswas the first independent


mobile bottler in Canadawhen the company started up in 2005. At the time, Colewas acting


winemaker for Tinhorn Creek Vineyards, havingworked hisway up fromvineyard and cellar hand in the late 1990s. He and hiswife Janice Sequeira


moved to theOkanagan in 1997 from Ontario,where hewas a chemist and shewas in environmental science. By 2005, they began to realize there


was going to be an influx of screwcaps as interest grewin using themore technical closure and reducing the risk of cork taint—andmostwineries weren’t set up for them. Itwas a difficult decision, and the


actual start-upwas donewhile Colewas stillworking at Tinhorn Creek, so itwas


JUDIE STEEVES


From washing to bottling, capping and boxing, it’s all done in a specially equipped truck trailer.


British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Summer 2013 25


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