Well I've found that it depends on who/where the original wine was bottled..... as to what kind of glue was used on the original label.
Some of the Australian wine bottles have been a complete PITA as they tend to have used a "self adhesive" type printed label that's been put on with a machine and is a complete SOB to get the glue off.
Which meant that I had to find something........ and has led me to either use "Preptone" (a solvent used by the car valeting industry - specifically for removing the glue residues from car paint work - both solvent based paint and water based.... oh and no, I don't know what the brand would be in the US....) or I use "brake cleaner" for cleaning car brake components without leaving any kind of greasy residue on brake pads, shoes, discs, drums or calibers - the only thing being that it has to be the one that contains trichlorethane, because the "environmentally friendly" one (no trich!) doesn't do the job as well and there is sometimes a little glue residue left..... This is done before the bottle is washed internally. Once it's done inside and out, I put them in the dish washer. Then use a sulphite/citric acid solution to sanitise them internally when I'm ready to bottle.
As for the glue I use for labels, either a stationary store "glue stick", wallpaper paste or even flour and water (though flour and water takes a long time to dry out and the label can show signs of mould after a while.....)
Oh, and if you can find one then it's worth finding out the price of bottles from them (if you use enough, or can split the cost with someone else). I had to pick up a "load" recently, which was 26 pallets of champagne bottles (1008 per pallet), but asked the guy about normal bordeaux type bottles. He said that I could get 1338 bottles per pallet of the bordeaux type (in green glass) for £260 per pallet (about 432$US) which worked out at 19 pence or about 30 cents per bottle (I'd have sorted the transport myself). Plus the dreaded VAT/purchase tax. That'd be about half of the price charged by the home brew shops.
I know it sounds a lot, but if you worked out how many bottles you wash and de-label per hour, it's cheap. Of course, it's dependant on whether you use enough bottles and or whether you have someone to split the cost with........
I'm thinking about this for next year when another forum I visit has it's annual "grapefest".
regards
fatbloke
p.s. Oh and I've also found that cellulose paint thinners works for the glue problem as well (the difficult to remove glue, that is). Like anything, these solvents need to be used in a well ventilated area, otherwise you get "off your face" on the vapours!
