Two years ago today, we moved the distillery a couple of miles down the road and here are all the thoughts I had when photos from then popped up on my phone :
We'd hired a flatbed for two days, so absolutely everything had to be moved in that space of time, which, in hindsight, was kind of ridiculous. We'd thrown a huge farewell Open House Do the night before so as you can imagine, we were all raring to go, bright and early.
Katie was holding the fort at the pop-up shop we'd fortuitously taken on in Falmouth, which became this little haven of peace and calm amongst the chaos. Orders were still going out, bottles were still being filled- she kept ticking over while the rest of us disappeared into Project Move. Oh and running the Crowdfunder.
So us and some very wonderful friends spent the next few days doing a continual loop between the old distillery and the new one.
My van and the the flatbed. Back and forth. Back and forth.
Every trip was full to the brim. Shelves, pallets of bottles, stainless steel equipment, bottling machines, rolls of labels, paperwork, chairs, disco balls... everything you could possibly imagine that makes up a distillery somehow had to make the journey across town.
I remember one of the shelving units shed bits of itself all the way to the new site, so for days afterwards we'd randomly spot another shelf bracket on the side of the road and laugh.
It was also around the hottest part of the year. We were fueled on caffeine, pasties, adrenaline and ice lollies.
Katie saw the place for the first time in those couple of days, and we all sat on the grass together to be revived by Sandi's Deli sandwiches before carrying on which was heaven.
We hadn't moved into a finished distillery- think more: big, echoey, dusty shell. All we could really do was pile the entire contents of the business into great mountains, throw dust sheets over everything and keep going while the building work continued.
It was chaotic, exhausting and, in a very type-two-fun sort of way, actually brilliant.
After we'd finally emptied the old unit, I stayed behind to hand the keys back.
There's nothing quite like the place where your business was born.
Every mistake, every challenge, every little win happened within those four walls so far, I remember pondering, before walking to the pub to get nostalgic the sensible way: in good company, with a beer.
If someone had shown us a photo of what it would look like two years later, I think we'd have scoffed.
Now it's warm. It's welcoming. It's full of people. It's become exactly the sort of place we'd hoped it might one day be.
Looking back now, with a bit of distance, I mostly just feel incredibly grateful.
To everyone who carried boxes, drove vans, kept the business running while we disappeared into the chaos, sat on the grass eating sandwiches with us, or simply cheered us on from the sidelines - thank you!! ❤️
