The day has arrived! Our first juice delivery as an officially licensed winery, and OH BOY was it one to remember… Our first run of juice comes from Mazza Vineyards, the largest producing winery in Pennsylvania. The order consisted of all the varietals that make up our Essentials Collection. Catawba, DeChaunac, Landot Noir, Riesling, Traminette, and Valvin Muscat. One 60 gallon barrel of each variety except catawba, which had two barrels. Somewhere along the lines there was a miscommunication where we were expecting a lift gate delivery, but that didn’t happen.
It was 7:15am in the morning, Matt had run out quick and I had all three kids on top of getting our oldest ready for school. In pulls the delivery truck. Our neighbor Joe, to our great advantage, took the day off of work expecting a truck delivery of his own. He had talked to the driver and sent him down the driveway. Unfortunately, the driver pulled in instead of backing in…Anyone who’s been to our home knows we have a long driveway with tight curves, making it difficult for large trucks to maneuver. 5 minutes later he was stuck when trying to turn around. And I mean STUCK. The one side of the truck was about 2 feet down in the soft dirt next to the vineyard and was leaning so heavily that it looked like it was going to flip right over.
I was frantically taking care of the kids inside, then running back and forth outside to help the driver, calling Matt… I was a lunatic! I managed to help the driver get boards under his tires and he was able to pull the truck out. Thank goodness. Finally, 5 minutes later, Matt pulls in and he’s ready to take over while I finish getting the kids ready for the morning. Now Matt has a dilemma. The truck didn’t come with a lift gate. Matt got on the phone, and 5 minutes later our neighbor Joe came riding down on his brother-in-law’s backhoe to save the day. About halfway through the delivery, the airlock brakes failed on the truck and it started to roll forward as they were loading a barrel onto the backhoe. Luckily, the driver jumped down in time, ran to the drivers seat, and repositioned the truck. Matt and Joe managed to get 5 of the barrels delivered successfully. The Catawba wouldn’t be seen until the following week. So, I would say our first juice delivery was a GREAT success!
The next week, Joe and his brother-in-law were kind enough to lend the backhoe for the morning, where Darren came to assist Matt with offloading the last 2 barrels. Unlike the previous week though, this delivery went off without a hitch. We kept the truck out at the road and just drove the barrels down. After the chaos that happened last week, we learned from here on out the truck will ALWAYS just stay out by the road.
