I am wondering what the best way to ship wine back home to the states is. We have been to the Napa area quite a few times and we used a local shipping company to send our wines home. Is there anything like this in Italy? The wineries will also ship in Napa, do they in Italy?
This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kim,
Posts: 123 | Location: Hutchinson, MN United States | Registered: 29 July 2003
You will not have any problem finding people to ship wines home to you for about $150 a case. But be aware that wine importation is illegal without full liscensing. So your wine may be impounded for customs adn payment of importation taxed and duty. If so, you will ahve to hire a customs broker to get your wine out of bond and by then the wine may be in who knows what condition as it will not be impounded into a temperature controlled environment. This is not a remote possibility but one I have heard of on several occasions. It happened to my boss and he had a case of Montalcino wines ruined.
I always check a few cases of wine using styrofoam shipping crates. I will always check a few empty ones going over and then fill them and bring the wine back as checked luggage. As long as it is stryofoam shippers where there is no way for one bottle to touch another, Lufthansa and United accept it with no problems. Y9ou may get harassed at Customs but they will just get a few dollars from you for the Alcahol taxed (at about $3.00 a case) and then duty if you are over your allowance of total value. Customs is trying to make sure you are not bringing in the wine for resale.
The crate thing sounds like a hassle. A lot of lugging around heavy boxes plus all your luggage. I don't think I would want to do that. Who has to be licensed? Me the buyer, Im not sure what you mean by that? Its so easy in Napa, it sucks that it has to be so difficult in Italy.
Posts: 123 | Location: Hutchinson, MN United States | Registered: 29 July 2003
The importer has to be liscenced. ANd it is not as easy as you think from Napa. If you arenot in a specific set of states, it is illegal to ship wine from Napa to your state. This is true of Maryland, DC and Virginia where I live. When I buy wine direct from a winery, I have to have it shipped to an address in California and then make arrangements to move it to Maryland later.
As to the hassel of the wine shipping, I have never been btohered by it. If you are, then you either pay a lot of money to ship the wine and take your chances. If you wine does not arrive, you have no recourse as you are party to an illegal transaction and your contract is unenforcable. In any case, many people ship successfully but again, many have customs troubles. Wine is regulated way too much in the US but now I am venturing into politics!
Hey Dean, Chris is a licensed Customs Broker - would that help at all in shipping wines back? Not that we will - we'll probably carrier all the wine and ship the olive oil.
BTW - double check your states again, a recent court ruling (like last week) made it legal to ship wines directly from the winery (in the US) to your home if you're physically present in the winery to arrange the shipment. NJ is one of those states so now if we ever get to Napa, we can ship wines home. There were 10 states affected by the ruling, MD may have been one of them...hold on I'll go check...
Can't find the article where I saw it but I did find one that says Virginia is poised to end their ban. Though the article is from February, so I'm not sure what's happened since.
Chris being a customs broker will just help in that most brokers charge a large minimum fee. There is still all the hassle with Customs. Because of our importing, WHole Foods has customs brokers we work with and it still took several phone calls to get the product released and shipped to my boss.
Maryland has yet to take action on the direct shipping issue. They are probably going to follow suit on whatever Virginia does. It is so silly that I cannot bring in wines that are not available in Maryland.
Dean, do you know a source to buy the empty styrofoam shipping boxes? I remember getting them in Napa from various wine shops, but I haven't seen any here for sale in NY. Even Zachy's doesn't sell them.
Last time we just brought empty cardboard folding ones and brought them back full as carry-ons, (we managed 16 bottles in carryon) but now the carryon restrictions are even more stringent, so I wouldn't want to count on that.
We'll want to bring one or two styrofoam packers for our next trip!
My solution is I have a designated suitcase with wheels,then I found(LA Wine Company) styrofoam wine containers that are stackable,they just fit in a large suitcase,the suitcase weighs 10 lbs,so with the 18 bottles of wine is under the 70 lb. requirement. I am even going to get foam cut in the sizes of the remaining space in the suitcase to be extra secure(local foam store)I hate paying $150 or more for shipping!RR
Posts: 6504 | Location: Culver City, CA, USA | Registered: 08 November 2002
quote:Originally posted by Janet: Dean, do you know a source to buy the empty styrofoam shipping boxes? ... Even Zachy's doesn't sell them.http://www.jczinn.com
If you are going to be in Montalcino, the Enotecca, Franci, Bruno Dalmazio and Pierangolo all carry them. They will give them to you free if you buy 8 or more bottles in my experience.
As to buying them here, my local shop, Bassin's Macarthur Wines carrys them. I have had wine shipped from Zachy's that came in styrofoam boxes so I think they are not giving you the right answer. A 12 bottle carrier should run about $12.00. Keep checking with your wine shops.
Mailboxes Etc have them but I recall the prices being very high.
quote:Originally posted by Robert Rainey: My solution is I have a designated suitcase with wheels,then I found(LA Wine Company) styrofoam wine containers that are stackable
I would only worry about the fact that the suitcase might be opened for inspection after it is checked. If there is any difficulty in getting it reclosed, your wine could be in danger.
I just use the boxes as there are always carts available in European airports (typically for free) and there are carts at Dulles Customs (again for free).
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