Autoclave bottles

I've been heat sterilizing all my bottles for wine & beer for the past 3+ years, and have never had one break in the oven. I've also only once had one break without being dropped (the bottom mysteriously came off a bottle of Nebbiolo-Cab Sauv blend the day after I bottled once). I would estimate I have processed well over a thousand bottles this way.

The key is to bring the temperature up and down slowly, because as previous posters have said the glbutt in these bottles is not tempered, and thus is vulnerable to heat shock. Rapid temperature changes will shatter wine bottles. I place bottles in my cold oven with the mouths covered by foil, then heat to 200F. I step up the temperature in 50 degree increments, with at least a 15 minute hold at each temperature once the oven has hit the target. Ultimate target I go for is 350F, which I hold at for at least 1 hour. Then I turn off the oven and let it cool down with the oven door CLOSED.

The foil protects the bottle indefinately until I am ready to fill it; I've prepped bottles months in advanced this way.

I would not recommend burning off the labels in the oven, that would require very high heat, and I'm not sure what what fumes may come out of the label adhesive or inks. I soak off the labels and clean out any grundge before the sterilization, because clean and sterile are two different things.

From a thermal engineer who likes to ferment things.