Our First International Shipment (Labels, Boxes, Pallet, ...)

Yesterday, Tuesday 25th May, I spent all day sticking labels onto bottles, exactly 804 labels (for the record), ie 402 front-labels and 402 back-labels.

It's our very first ever shipment abroad! Vinos Ambiz Young White, 100% Airen (not filtered, not clarified).

The following photos are a bit dark, because I was in a 'real' bodega, ie dark and cold (unlike our own place in Ambite).

After bottling and corking the bottles the other day (see a previous post) we decided to move the bottles to the bodega of our friend (and fellow organic winemaker) just down the road in the village of Morata de Tajuña - temperatures are rising in Madrid (at last!) and our place in Ambite doesn't have good insulation.

Bottles being labelled

Labelling station and detritus

The other day, I discovered by chance (luckily!) that you can't just use any old pallet to ship goods to the USA! It has to be a specially approved model that is made of plastic (as opposed to wood). No doubt the reason for this is to reduce the risk of accidentally importing insects, larvae, germs, etc that can live in wood.

Plastic pallet, homologated for entry into the USA

Below is Juan, sealing up the 6-packs and stacking them on the pallet.

Sealing up the boxes

The stack grows

Well, it's almost ready to go. Now we just have to wrap the stack up in plastic film (I forgot to buy it yesterday!) and call the transport company to come and pick it up.