I have many dusty, dirty old wine bottles. What's the best way to thoroughly clean them for when I make wine?

Question

When you use old wine bottles to make wine at one of those wine making stores, it can be very hard to get your bottles clean. That's why its best to keep your bottles clean from the start.

I want to make a couple of batches of wine this summer. But the bottles I want to use have been sitting in my basement for a long time. They are very dusty and dirty and no doubt have a "build up" in the bottom of each bottle.

What's the most effective way of cleaning them? Bleach? Soap? Any ideas?

Answer 1

vinigar with lemon juice

u could try oven cleaner though

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Answer 2

For the really cruddy ones, I use an overnight soak in 5 gal. of hot water, 2 oz of bleach, and 3/4 C of TSP. After that, I scrub with a bottle brush. I never use detergent because most of the bottles I clean are used for beer; habits are hard to break. Then I triple rinse in tap water and rinse once in a solution of One-Step sanitizer. If the bottles are not going to be used immediately, I cover their mouths with squares of sanitized aluminum foil.

Answer 3

I just hand wash mine in a unscented dish detergent and then thoroughly rinse them.  With beer it's important to use detergents rather than soap due to the fats and oils in soap but this mainly has to do with head retention so perhaps it doesn't apply to wine.  A few hours before bottling I then put them through the dishwasher (if you have one) on the heated dry cycle.  I then go one step further and put a small amount of sanitizer solution (I use powdered "One Step") in each bottle which I swish around directly before bottling and then dump.  

I tend to go a little overboard though.  My rational has always been that bottling is the worst place to cut corners though since it's the last major step in which anything can really go wrong.  Better safe than sorry as they say...

Answer 4

Soak them in a solution of bleach and water.  Then put each bottle in the dishwasher on the pots and pans cycle.   This should do the trick.