The Auswine Forum

Hi

Merry easter to all. I was wondering whether anyone would happen to have any advice as to the easiest way to remove labels from bottles?

I've got a quite a few old wine bottles at home and would like to remove the labels, place them in an album of sorts with notes and keep them for posterity(though probably more for my own obsessive compulsive behaviour and the wife wants me to clean up the mess ) so if anyone (is as sad as me) and has done this or something similar along those lines and can offer any advice be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Ant

Old labels should just float off the bottle if left to soak for a few hours in hot water with a little detergent.
However I find it increasingly hard to remove labels from bottles produced say, post 2000. There has been a move to a more glossy paper and non water soluble adhesive is used.
New world producers seem to have been the first to do this. I have been unable to remove most Australian labels from the mid 80's onwards using the traditional soaking method.
The French, particluarly prestigious medoc producers, still use pourous labels and the old glue so their labels can be soaked off (La Lagune 2002 labels just fall off in the cellar).
But the move towards trendier marketing in an attempt to make up ground lost to the new world is changing a lot of the mid-market labels.
There are a few guides on the web to label removal, but so far, none have been overall successful in my experience, especially those that recommend saoking the labels and then scraping them off with a rasor blade!

As Mike said, about 80% of the time, soaking them in hot water for 1-2 hours with a little detergent works fine. Many newer and New World labels require some deft knife/razor blade work to scrape them off. I put them in photo albums (the ones with 'sticky' plastic pages) in order to preserve them for my own edification (i.e., OC).

Get modern guys, just take a digital photo of the label (front and back if you are really OC).

That way you don't have to bring the bottles back from restaurants, friends etc.

And think of all the water you will save.

I have one wall of my cellar covered in wine labels (see my avatar) and have found the easiest way to remove the newer style labels that you refer to is to put the bottles in an oven heated to about 100 degrees celsius for about 15 minutes. The glue softens, label peals off easily and already has glue on it to stick it on the wall.

Remove all plastic or wax capsules first, rinse any dreggs out, use an oven mit to handle the bottles and a knife to peal the label.

The older style labels are actually much more difficult to remove. I usually lay them over a saucepan with water simmering in it and steam them off. I use some al foil over the saucepan with a gap to direct the steam. This takes time and patience so it has to be a label I really want to make it worthwhile.

so if anyone (is as sad as me)

on this occassion, not me.

I have a few old bottles lying around but labels????

I have had some success with wine label removers which are a bit like sheets of "Contact" (clear plastic book covering material with adhesive on one side). I haven't bought any for a few years but if you Google "Wine label removers" you get a few options.

Thanks for all the hints and tips guys. I seem to have had a good deal of success with the razor and hot water in the bottle trick for most labels. Some are just bloody stubborn! Will give the soaking a go for those labels which refuse to come off the razor/hot water way.