Celler D. Russell Smith is now sailing for Houston! Our ship, Hapag-Lloyd Akritas, left Barcelona on Monday bound for Houston on Nov. 13th. As always, bottling was a bit of a struggle but we "got 'er done". This was the first time I had ever loaded an ocean-going container.
I opted for refrigeration because we never know what will happen with the weather this time of year. The driver opened the doors and the fresh, minty smell of disinfectant wafted out. The inside of the container was as clean as an operating room! I've never seen anything like it.
It appears that every industry has its own peculiar lingo. International shipping is no exception. An ocean container is not loaded or filled. It is "stuffed". We stuffed the container in about 15 minutes. We discovered as the last pallet was being loaded that a miscalculation had been made on the pallet sizes because it wouldn't fit. I had visions of having to re-stack ten pallets of wine. A solution was found by using a "baby pallet" for the remaining cases. It took us a while to find one that would fit.
The doors were sealed with a tamper-evident seal, the reefer was turned on and it was off to Barcelona. ¡Buen viaje!
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