We are thrilled to share this update with you, as the last few months have been very exciting! We are proud to say that we underestimated the popularity of our product. Two months after the first production we finished all 310 cases.
On June 4th, we performed our 2nd production run. We definitely treated this one like it was our baby and instead of standing around watching, we worked the line this time. We were so excited that we bought lunch for our second family (everyone who works at the winery) and took a break halfway through the production run.
This time around we increased the volume three-fold, totaling 930 cases. We are also pleased to announce the introduction of our 1.5 L bottle. The 1.5 L has made us more attractive to many bars and restaurants. In addition to being available online, Senor Sangria is currently being sold in 70 stores in New Jersey. By the end of the year we are hoping we will be in 125 locations. We are hitting the streets every week delivering 80-100 cases to our retailers.
Delivery day for our second production run was a great day. As soon as the truck pulled up to the warehouse, Maria and I jumped out of the car and started taking pictures and videos. The truck driver thought we were a couple of lunatics. We tried explaining that this was our product, but he continued to question our sanity – and guard the truck – until the folks at the warehouse confirmed who we were. We were fully aware of how much sangria we made, but I have to say that watching 10,500 lbs (or 3,720 750 ml bottles & 3,720 1.5 L bottles) come off this truck was jaw dropping. It was a proud moment for the folks at Senor Sangria.
Below are the pictures we took during the bottling. Enjoy!
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- As always we need to taste the blend before we bottle. Keep in mind it’s usually 8am or so when tasting. YUM…. :-) At least we are getting our vitamin C with all the citrus juice in there.
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- This is one big darn tank of sangria. This tank hold over 2,000 gallons. How cool is that!
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- Here are a bunch of empty boxes waiting to be filed with bottles of sangria. We need to label each box before they are packed.
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- Lots of orange capsules. Well they are red but hey… who’s checking…
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- On our 2nd production run we introduced a 1.5L bottle. This is the big brother to our original bottle size. Holds twice the amount. This one is empty as you can tell.
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- On this production run we also introduced a colorful capsule. Can you read the top?
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- The sides have cool designs as well
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- Here we are loading the bottles into the line
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- When the production line starts off it takes the machinery a little time before the filler is “filled up”… so we need to pull some bottles off the line and dump the sangria.
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- sadly… this sangria is lost… :(
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- aahhh… look at the beautiful bottles coming off the line…
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- The capsules get put onto the bottle during this step…
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- The capsules are on solid now…
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- Here are our labels rolling off the line
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- As the sangria comes off the line we stack it onto a pallet.
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- Wow… look at all that sangria stacked up… That’s over 300 cases of sangria. I don’t think that will fit in the Pathfinder