We have had our first delivery of bottles.

This order included one-liter bottles and 375-ml bottles. There were approximately 3,000 bottles.

There were several surprises with this first delivery.

First, the bottles were delivered a day late.

Second, the bottles were taken to the wrong address. FedEx gave the driver an incorrect address, and the bottles were taken to the wrong place, about twenty miles down the road.

Third, the bottles were stacked high on two pallets in the back of the delivery truck, and could not be off-loaded with the pallet jack, as they had been packed in such a way that the pallet jack was useless.

Fourth, the bottles did not come in boxes. This was one of the biggest surprises. They arrived on a pallet, in stacks (about 8 feet tall) on floppy, light-weight cardboard.

stacking-bottles

Fifth, we had just about the nicest FedEx driver. (I do not know why this surprises me, but he went way out of his way to help us.) Luckily, both Chuck and our son, Iain, were at the distillery at the time of the delivery. It took the three of them over two hours to off-load the bottles. The FedEx driver never complained.

We managed to get the bottles into the distillery. They are in the center of our production room and definitely in the way. It is surprising how much space they take. Now, I need to move the 3,000 bottles to a better location. I plan to look at it as a long walk, going back and forth about 1,000 times.

This week I am expecting the delivery of the 750 ml bottles This is a large order, approximately 4,000 bottles. I really do not know what to expect.