IBC totes for wineries

Where totes fit in a winery

At harvest, totes move grapes, must and juice between press, tank and cellar. Through the year they carry cleaning water and transfer wine. A tote is cheaper and lighter than a stainless vessel and fits a pallet jack, which is why smaller wineries use them heavily.

The trade-off is history. A used tote of unknown past can carry taste, and a winery will not risk it. The food-grade history guide defines what to ask for, and the rebottled tote page shows the new-bottle option.

Timing

Harvest sets the calendar. A winery that waits until the week before the crush finds that every other winery is asking at the same time. Put the date in the request, and give the count by size. The Temecula Valley page covers the area.

After the crush

Surplus totes with clean food-only history have a second life. Keep the record, rinse nothing that is not already clean, and list the lot through the sell page. A buyer who needs food-grade totes will pay attention to the log first.

A cellar example

A winemaker moving juice from the press pan to a cold tank uses a tote as a bridge. It sits on a pallet jack, is filled with a hose and is emptied by gravity or a pump. The tote never leaves the cellar, but it touches the product, so its history belongs in the same logbook as the barrels.

After the crush, the totes are washed, drained and stacked. A winery with a modest cellar may use only a handful, but each one is used hard for a few weeks. Describing the cellar and the season in your request is enough for a good match.

Cleaning and sanitizing a tote

Wineries often sanitize with approved solutions. Ask which a tote has met in the past, because a residue of the wrong one can taint a batch. A new bottle sidesteps the question.

Used totes after harvest

Once the crush is over, a winery often has more totes than it needs. They can be graded and offered on, with their history file attached.

Questions people ask