Olive oil and wine

Last year I was able to bring into US a bottle of wine I purchased in the airport in Romania.I had to change airplains in france and Canada and Nobody asked me anything or checked my carry-on backpack.

Stew - the 3 oz/100 ml liquid rule is in effect for the EU. So no, you cannot buy olive oil & wine outside the airport and put it in your carryon. Inside the airport is a possibly different story - from the Barcelona Airport website:

"Liquids bought in shops at European Community airports, when, and only when, the shop is located beyond the security checkpoints. Should you acquire any of the products affected by these regulations, ask the shop personnel for more information about how to transport the liquids you have acquired."

We did bring back a bottle of wine from Italy in our checked baggage this past summer.

You won't be able to bring it in carryon luggage, sorry. I faced the same issue leaving Spain and was told that I could buy (and carry it on) at the duty free in Spain, but once I got to London it would have to be checked in my luggage to go further.

When leaving Venice in May, I witnessed an unfortunate sight: the folks at the security point took a beautiful bottle of olive oil (in a nice gift box) away from a family as well as bottles of wine. They returned the box. Remember the 3-ounce rule. It is enforced.

Bea, I find it remarkable that you never had your carryon bag screened in either France or Canada. I would think that they would have seen the wine when the bag went through the xray machine.

It was probably before the liquid restrictions of August, 2006.

Ah, of course -- I forgot how recent that was.

Ahh. I went to Romania/France in May-June of 2006.

so it's impossible now to bring a bottle of wine into US, inless you fly directly from Europe to your hometown here in the US....
That's terrible.

One option is to have the store ship it home for you. Most wine stores will do this for around 50-80 euros for a case. The other option is to take an empty case shipper with you, fill it up as you go along, and then check it for your return trip.

Stew-
Pretty sure you'll have to put that in your checked baggage. I have to agree with the posters about seeing if it can be shipped home. If not, I've had good luck doing this with bottles of wine- I take an old t-shirt and a plastic bag (either a very large ziploc bag or a plastic bag from the grocery store) with me. At the end of my trip, I wrap 1 bottle of wine per t-shirt, then put it in the plastic bag and tie tightly. Then place right smack in the middle of the suitcase surrounded by all my other stuff. I've been fortunate and never had any problems with broken items this way, whether flying international or domestic.

Or, as a previous poster said, you can bring it in your checked luggage if you want to take the risk of something breaking.

Ahh, I miss the good old days!
10+ years ago, my wife and I were returning from a very romantic stay in Southern France. Our carry-ons were stuffed with wine from a favorite village winery.
Better to err on the side of caution, I know, but I can't help but be nostalgic for those days.

I also packed a few wine bottles the way Kelly did. We put our backpacks through as checked luggage so, it wasn't necessarily very sturdy luggage. Nothing broke--wish I would have brought more back. Have a great trip!

Stew, poster Kelly has it right. Keep your wine in the cardboard carrying boxes if they are purchased that way so there's no glass-to-glass contact. Middle of the suitcase, use your clothes for packing. Use your internal suitcase straps to secure the lot. We pack 6-8 bottles per suitcase this way. Brought MANY bottles of Tuscan wine and some olive oil home a few weeks ago. Ahh, delicious Sangio.....

I noticed in Zurich last week - the Duty free shop said 1 bottle per person carry on (schnaps, wine, oil)... but I had a direct flight. Any stop over may again take away. If youre direct - buy a bottle on the way home on the last direct-leg (pay more tho)... or just bring lots of bubble wrap and freezer ziplock bags, wrap in sweater and check it! should be ok if its in the middle of the bag and cant move around too much. Boxed bottles help too.

If you do not have a direct flight back to the states, you could buy your duty free goods, take them on board, and then after you retrieve your luggage for customs in the states, open your checked luggage and put the items in, then check it through to your final destination. It worked for me last year. It is a bit of a hassle, but the rewards were worth it :-)

Those of you that brought back multiple bottles of wine in your checked luggage: Did you have any prolems w/ customs in the amount brought back? I though that I had seen that each person was limited to 1 liter somewhere. I may be mistaken.

I'm going to be in France/Germany/Austria next year so would like to bring back a few things.

I just brought two bottle of wine from Paris, through Zurich and Las Vegas. I put them in plastic bags, separately, then used scotch tape and wrapped each bottle up very tightly, kind of bandaged them. More plasic bags, then scarves, then put them between clothes in my checked luggage. Both survived just fine through all the loadings/unloadings.

We brought a bottle of "liquor" from China in October into the U.S., but only in our checked luggage. We put it in plastic zip locks & wrapped it in dirty laundry (middle of the suitcase) - it made it unscathed. Believe me, Chinese baggage handlers are NOT gentle! I think you could probably do the same with olive oil or wine.

I flew back from Rome in March and bought some jam at the airport. It was 125g and the girl heat sealed it in a plastic bag for me. When I got to Hong Kong I went through security to change planes and they wanted to confiscate it. I argued the point as the girl in Rome assured me it would be OK as she had sealed it in the plastic bag. The supervisor came up and I showed him my receipt and explained that I had bought it after security in Rome and he told me it was OK. However I don't think I will try it again. Way to stressful. A friend came back from Rome 2 days earlier and they bought some wine at the duty free in the airport and had no problems going through Hong Kong. Still seems to be a bit of confusion about the whole issue. Best to err on the safe side and wrap it really well as described above and put in your checkin.

In response to the question on limits; the one liter is what you can bring back duty free. There actually is no Federal limit on the amount of alcohol that you can bring back for personal use, just that you may owe duty (some percent of purchase cost, a tax) on anything over 1 liter. Your State actually does control what would be your limit, but often the Federal Customs officials do not enforce state law, and i can imagine only would if you lived in the state that was your Port of Entry. I have brought back anything from only a few bottles to (Pre-strict baggage limits and the liquid thing) just over 50 bottles; and have never had to pay duty.