Years ago when I was a young territory sales manager with an aviation parts-distribution business we had an expression called AOG. This meant STAT. Basically someone’s “airplane was on the ground,” unable to fly, therefore costing some company a bunch of money. This would be a regional airline, a helicopter service or most often a corporate.

At one time I worked the Silicon Valley market so it was conceivable a very serious CEO riding a Gulfstream (G-5) had a flat tire. Mr. Big had an appointment in Japan tomorrow, was leaving at midnight, it was Thursday and already 5:00 pm.

We also had an expression called “Piss Poor Prior Planning does not constitute an emergency on my part.” Which leads me to asking how prepared everyone is for the upcoming crush.

As we head toward August it might be a good idea to fire up the equipment. Crush pad comes to mind. Your pumps are probably fine, but I’m thinking about the destemmer, press, sorting tables and bin dumpers. It has been a year since you last covered everything with a tarp thereby providing a wonderful nursery environment for the rodents. One of their favorite foods in wineries is wiring insulation.

Years later when I carved another career selling winery equipment we would get the same calls of desperation. The grapes were due to arrive soon and the press doesn’t start, will not hold pressure, or does not rotate. I guess we will call that PAW as in “Press Ain’t Working.”

The serious vendor you purchased all this equipment from should have scheduled a pre-season tune up; sort of like an oil and filter change with a tire, transmission and differential check. Maybe not. Our company maintained a staff of people with 24/7 cell phone response just to make sure we could keep your head above water, if we had the time.

The big problem is that European manufacturers always think August is a wonderful time to shutter their doors and head to the Amalfi Coast. Good luck getting a replacement bladder for your Italian press over-nighted from Genoa. Hopefully your local supplier has taken the initiative to put one in inventory and has the time to install it.

Just a thought … though I remember too many wineries going from PAW to SOL.