Today I had the opportunity to have a longshoreman at the Port of San Diego give me a quick tour of the Port as well as letting me see the size of some of the refrigerated containers that are shipped into and out of the port. I learned a couple of things that most native San Diegan’s probably didn’t know, including the fact that San Diego is one of the largest, if not the largest, port for banana entry into the United States. I promise there are tons and tons of bananas.

The real reason for my trip down to the port, wasn’t to see all the bananas….it was so I could get an idea of the size of the refrigerated containers available to Uncorked Ventures to ship to Central and South America.

I had been given the dimensions of the containers before hand by a few shipping companies, but for me seeing it in person is always informative. A container that holds 1,000 cases…..or 12,000 bottles of wine is an interesting sight.

I’m looking forward to the day I’m standing next to Matt somewhere in Latin America watching our crate being unloaded from a cargo ship.

How do you approach potential customers without having wineries already signed up and ready to ship?

How do you approach wineries without having a customer base to start with?

I think I now see why most, if not all successful wine clubs are started by wineries or companies that have brick and mortar stores.

I think there are a few ways around that on each side of the equation……but it is an extremely difficult problem to solve.

On the bright side we are moving forward with our federal paperwork.

Another chicken and egg question though comes up:

When do you file paperwork to ship directly to each state? Before you have customers? You increase your financial risk in doing so. After you find paying customers there? You risk alienating those new customers if it takes 60+ days for them to receive their first shipment.

Interesting questions all and it isn’t like there is a business plan out there that can answer them for us.