Bringing home wine

If you are buying at a winery, you can inquire if they can handle shipping it home. Another option is to write down the names of ones you really like and find them locally when you get home. Just bring home the obscure ones that would be hard to find. Often, you can find in the states at as good or better price than Europe. BTW, I once brought home 2 very nice bottles of wine and a lovely bottle of olive oil home from a business trip to Italy. Wine bottles are very sturdy and survived perfectly, but olive oil, not so much. When I got home, and unpacked my bag, well, I'll just leave that to your imagination.

Some states don't allow you to ship wine to them. You would have to see what the case is in Texas. Also, shipping wine can be extremely expensive.

According to the US Customs site you can only bring in 1 liter per person duty free (2 750ml bottles). However, duty is only only 3 percent, so just what you have and either you'll be waved through customs or have to pay a few bucks. We brought 6 liters of port back from Portugal a few years ago and were just waved through and didn't pay anything. Last year, we had a winery in Montelpulchiano ship a 6 pack to us (most wineries would ship directly to you). Not inexpensive-I think the shipping was about $80, but it was 2005 Reserve, and after checking on line we confirmed that the wine was not available in the US. Or if one of your last stops is a winery, you have a car, and providing that the winery has a shipping box (with either foam/ or other dividers used for shipping UPS or Fed Exp), you could check the box as luggage. We check wine all the time when flying out of California. Here's a link for bringing wine into Texas from out of the county. (You can bring 5 gallons of wine (25 bottles 750ml)
http://www.tabc.state.tx.us/faq/personal_importation.asp

Wineskins are one-time use at 2/US$10 but Bottle Armor are reusable at 2/US$25, both available from Magellans. (We've used both.) Liz, we usually spend the expensive shipping charge to have a case or 2 sent home from the Winery, making sure it's a wine that can't be purchased in the US. We've never had a problem and so far haven't had to pay duty tax.

Shipping/mailing is rarely possible; iffy at best, both legally and financially. Back in the "good old days" of air travel we've carried home as much as 10 bottles in hand luggage, and Customs never asked us to pay duty. My understanding is that over your 2 bottle allotment the duty is something like 25 cents per bottle on non-fortified wine. Now that we can't carry wine in hand luggage, we've taken to packing it well and including it with checked baggage. A wine distributor I know recently brought an empty sack over to Europe and then filled it with 12 bottles, packing it well, and made it his checked baggage.

Use a product called Wine Skins. Bubble wrap bottle shaped double sealed protection for transporting wine (and olive oil). Available at many liquor/wine stores. Have never had a mishap using them. They are reasonably priced but be advised they are strictly one time use. Comes in packs of two.

Be aware that if you're checking the luggage the wine is in, that the temperatures (both extreme cold or heat) plus the "jostling" can have bad effects on the wine. As much as it pains me, I generally don't think shipping across the ocean is worth it for wine. I miss my California wines greatly, but the cost is too high to justify it. And you're better off in the US for finding good European wines than you are in Europe for getting good new world wines, at least.

We live here and ALWAYS bring wine when we go home to the States we like to share with family and friends, and champagne in particular is cheaper than you can buy it at home. We don'thave any fancy packing material, just bubble wrap, newspapers, plastic bags, clothes, you name it. Of course it makes for a heavy bag!! But we've never had a problem. And you simply can NOT find all the wines you're interested in back home. That small Barolo producer, the premier cru Chablis from the family cave that reminds you of meeting them . . .

So, Kim, when are you and your husband coming to visit us here in Maine; avec du vin? Whomever it is you visit is really lucky.
Now that I've found out about Bottle Armor and Wine Skins, I may have to try those. We've never had anything break, but we've also only brought wine back a couple of times since the no-liquid-in-carryons rule went into effect. Availability of European wines is quite good in the northeast US, so I really limit what I bring back to wines to that are something special; that obscure wine from the almost-extinct Chatus grape in the southern Ardeche; the wine from a small producer who we spent some time with; the basically-unobtainable sweet Pecherenc-de-Vic-Bilh from the Southwest; etc.

Yes, obviously you won't be able to find every wine, smaller wineries, etc back in the states, but most large cities do have very well-stocked wine ships that focus a lot on European wines. Very good Spanish, Italian, and especially French wines in amazing variety are not hard to find in the U.S. Maybe not the exact same winery you tasted on your travels, but there's a good chance you will be able to find something similar (and a well-trained clerk at a wine store will be able to help you with that). I understand the desire to bring wine back, and for some people it's obviously worth it, but the issues involved - weight, breakage, travel affecting the quality of the wine, cost (especially for shipping) - means that for me personally, I think it makes more sense to enjoy the wine when you do travel, and try to find something with similar qualities when you get back home than go through the stress and hassle of trying to get it across an ocean. And while the wine is cheaper in Europe, obviously, the cost of extra checked luggage or just shipping it will obviously negate those savings. I can see maybe bringing home a bottle or two if packed carefully, but anything more is going to cost extra enough that it just doesn't seem worth it to me. Also, 3 liters is 4 bottles, as a standard bottle is .75 liters.

I frequntly bring back wine and beer from trips. I will agree with the earlier poster that mentioned pre-9/11 days. much easier, would have a case in the cabin with me, much easier. Now I pack well in a checked bag. In a typical carry on size bag, you can easily pack six well protected bottles, with your one bag allowance plus a mate's, that's a case of well selected wine. On a dozen trips and a couple hundred bottles, I have never lost one. Concerns about travelling conditions mentioned are valid, but for most recent vintages, jostling is not a major effect, it would be with an old vintage wine by stirring up the sediments, but for what most anyone on here would buy,it is not a big concern. Temperature can be more of an issue, mostly heat, but all that packing also insulates the bottles and should be adequate protection for the 12 hours or so it takes to get home. Declare all bottles you have, even though you technically owe duty, they will not take the effort to collect a few dollars, hide the bottles, they can confiscate. If your port of entry to the US will be in Texas, as a Texas resident, state laws may be enforced, but Texas allows each person to bring in up to 3 gallons of wine or about 15 bottles(30 bottles for two), more than you can easily pack.

We don't pay any extra, and for us it's a bit priceless to be able to share with friends and family. My husband is a sommelier, so one can easily guess he's a bit particular about all this -- which also suggests that the wine doesn't suffer, as he wouldn't bother with it every time we travel if he had once found that it did (of course we don't pop open a bottle the night we arrive!). Just our experience.

Good tips all. Since people are so into wine I'd happily make a deal - pack your empty luggage with good Californian wines (especially fond of Russian River Pinot Noirs and anything from the Anderson Valley) and deliver them to me in Germany and I will pay you handsomely offsetting the cost of you taking back European wines. Then you have empty luggage with which to take wine back with and some extra cash, and you've made an expat very, very happy. No seriously, if anyone is ever flying into Frankfurt (or Stuttgart, obviously) hit me up, I'd so make this trade. In the meantime I will drink German wines and sigh imperceptibly, all the the time.

All this wine talk reminded me of the di Nobile Montelpulcino we shipped back last trip. So last night we had a bottle- awesome! You'd think that living in the heart of wine country, that local would be enough, but alas, it's not.
Sarah, next trip to Germany you have a deal. Russion River is on the other side of the highway, and we'll be tasting our way through Anderson Valley on Friday.

Robert -- sounds like a deal to me!! and Sarah, you too. I've been wanting to go to Anderson Valley in particular, so if I have to do it because of a Hhelpline commitment, all the better!

Liz, I hope you have a wonderful trip, I love Paris!

The Anderson Valley is hands down my favorite wine region to visit. Not only are the wines outstanding and tend to be a good value for the money (especially compared to Napa) but the region is just so beautiful and the people are so down-to-earth, it's just wonderful. A few of my favorite wineries include Husch Vineyards (excellent value for the money Chenin Blanc there! Plus nice tours of the vineyards) and Phillips Hill, which has fantastic (though not cheap) Pinot Noirs. Man, I'm getting so nostalgic thinking about the great camping/winetasting trip my friends and I did there this time two years ago...Enjoy!

Thank you for all your helpful replies. I will keep in mind the suggestions offered. I did find the wine skins at Specs and will bring a few of them just in case.
I leave today! I'll be in Paris in 16 hours!

Instead of bubble wrap of the wine skins I have used what I call "swimmies." some times called water wings for kids. I have found them at dollar stores a pair for $.99. They are falt until you blow them up so take up no room at all.

We brought back 22 bottles of champagne and wine from France two years ago and the duty was $3.50. You can just pack it in an extra suitcase and pay the extra baggage amount. We had some Dom P and are glad we did this. Be sure and pack it well.
Thanks - Bill

Marsha, have they worked well? I assume so or you would probably have said something about that.

William, you lucked out, you lucky dog. My niece and her family recently came back from France after a trip that included a week in Champagne, and had one suitcase full of Champagne, plus another with a few more bottles. The first one never arrived, despite numerous discussions with Air France. At one point Air France said the suitcase was probably still in France. Yes, and the Champagne was probably being consumed by the baggage handler's family.

Robert,
Yes the "swimmies" worked fine though I did have them inside of a plastic grocery bag just in case.

Robert,
Yes the "swimmies" worked fine though I did have them inside of a plastic grocery bag just in case.