One wouldn’t know it from my latest rants, but there are some things about my job that I really enjoy. We have been working on a massive “un-labeling” project for the last month.  Basically, 2,000 cases of wine are being unlabeled and uncapsuled so we can re-label them under a different brand.

Why would anyone un-label already labeled wine? Well, it’s not something that we do all the time; however, in these wonderful economic times, a sale is a sale. I need to move some wine out of our  warehouse to get ready for the next vintage. And if someone wants to buy a large quantity of our wine with a different label on it, then so be it!  I will happily un-label the wine and then re-label with whatever TTB approved label they want.

We are doing this project with Hope Services, a local non-profit organization. They provide jobs and training for developmentally disabled adults. Clos LaChance has worked with Hope before, but for much smaller projects. And I had never dealt with them personally.

The steps in this particular un-labeling project are as follows:

1. Unpack the wine from the Clos LaChance custom case box
2. Place the wine into large tubs to soak label overnight

3. Break down the Clos LaChance custom case box and place on a pallet for pick up*

4. Save 12 bottle case insert for repackaging
5. Build new unbranded case box
6. Place 12 bottle insert into new unbranded case box
7. Once labels have soaked overnight, remove bottles from soaking bin

8. Scrape labels off bottles with plastic scraper thingy (not an easy task)

9. Use a little Bartender’s Friend to get the remaining label glue off the bottles
10. Dry and polish clean bottles

11. Remove tin capsules

12. Repack bottles into new case boxes and stack on pallets

*I was really concerned with recycling 2,000 wine case boxes. Recycling is the obvious choice vs throwing them away, but I really wanted them to have a higher purpose. I tried to find a way to reuse the boxes or store them at the winery, but the wine we were relabeling was in a smaller bottle from our current bottles. And when we buy bottles, they come with a case box anyways. About a week before the commencement of the project, an old friend from high school called me. She works at Second Harvest Food Bank, and was looking for recycled wine boxes to use for food deliveries.  Perfect! Second Harvest coordinated with Hope Services—and now they have 2,000 wine case boxes, with the pretty Clos LaChance logo splashed all over them.

I went to visit the crew at Hope Services last Friday to see how the project was running. Wow, what an amazing group of people that take immense pride in their work. A few of them thanked me….and expressed how much they loved this kind of work. One of them told me how he was working to save money—in hopes of buying his dad a car for Father’s Day in 2016. I was really touched by these people and the experience over all.