Bringing wine home to US— ship or check baggage?

How much are you planning to buy, and what is Delta's weight limit for checked bags? Then compare what the vendor charges for with what bag fees might be, Also consider the risk of breakage or the cost of special packing sleeves etc to ship as baggage.

I've always wondered if wine purchased in Europe has any preservatives? Obviously wine made to export would have to, but wine only sold locally??

Since checked baggage goes into the cargo hold which can be as cold as 45 degrees Fahrenheit—will this fluctuation in temperature affect the wine?

Since checked baggage goes into the cargo hold which can be as cold as 45 degrees Fahrenheit—will this fluctuation in temperature affect the wine?

No, the cold temp is no problem. There could be a problem with exposure to high heat for an extended period of time, but not temps down in the 40s...

If you're thinking of buying a case, ship it! My family used Mail Boxes Etc in Tuscany and it arrived quickly, no breakage.

Definitely ship it home. Especially in this travel environment you will want to stick with your carry on only for the plane.

I don't buy more than three bottles and use the wine bags that I purchased from Bed Bath and Beyond. I pack them well and never have a breakage.

The big question is the quantity and your state laws. For personal use, you can bring in any amount you can carry to the plane in checked luggage. Shipping is another issue and can be an expensive hassle. Because you will need to deal with US customs, fees, and your state rules for importing. You pay duty on all wine shipped. We generally bring back three to five bottles packed in the luggage. Has worked great except for the one time we lost a bottle. A lot of pink underwear and t-shirts for awhile. You can buy "luggage" that will handle four, six, maybe eight bottles that would be checked luggage. So, if it is important to bring back a few bottles take a well padded bag for that purpose. Good luck ----

Between my husband and I and my parents, we've shipped well over a dozen cases of wine home from Europe (Burgundy in France, and Piedmont, Tuscany, and - most recently - Valpolicella in Italy) and have never had any problems. We've always bought directly from the winery and used their service they recommend. All we do is fill out an order form and our shipping info, the winery takes care of packaging it up and mailing. Two weeks ago from Valpolicella, we paid $150 (aka 150 euros, with this exchange rate!) per case. We think the added cost is absolutely worth it, to have it completely taken care of and shipped directly to our door. YMMV.

I've always wondered if wine purchased in Europe has any preservatives? Obviously wine made to export would have to, but wine only sold locally??

Less preservatives => better the wine!
The most important preservative are sulfates, who give to the most of people bad effects. You know the headache you have the day after? Is not due to the alcool, but sulfates. A wine has a little amount, produced during the fermentation (like 30 mg/liter), but adding them allow the wine to preserve it more (like 200 mg/liter). But is only a method to do a cheaper wine nd cover some defects.
The wine is alcoholic, so doesn't need preservatives.

About shipping a box to USA could be expensive. Probably be expected to spend around 100€ per 6 bottles. Of course is a very good shipping method and you are not bothered to travel with extra weight.
I travel very often with backpack and often I bring some bottles of wine. Usually enrolled in the dirty clothes make then safe during the travel. And imagine how bad is managed a soft backpack when handled on the airplane!

I've always wondered if wine purchased in Europe has any
preservatives?

All wine is filled with a preservative called ethanol.

I have only brought back with me, too much expense and hassle when I looked into shipping, plus my state at the time did not allow wine shipments (I believe that though has changed). I find in a carry on size bag, I can pack 6 bottles of wine, swaddled in dirty clothes, and keep under 50 lbs, Delta's standard limit, with my wife, we get 12 bottles home. If you are buying decent wine in heavy bottles with a punt, they will be safe.

Temperature and pressure really is not an issue, handling will not affect the wine...as long as you are not buying some 100 year old bottle filled with sediment. New wine has no sediment to muck up (Or very little) a short rest once home (like you) and it will be good as new. Declare it, you technically will owe duty, but in 20+ years and several hundred bottles, never paid a dime, including once bringing 50 bottles back (Pre-9/11 and baggage changes at the airlines)

Well, such a great thread. Who would’ve thought wine would be such a popular topic 😉

I agree that checking luggage can be a hassle right now, but the more I think about it shipping it would be terribly expensive and I’m concerned the high temperatures encountered during shipping will essentially ruin it. We are probably better off just bringing back a handful of bottles, wrapped in dirty clothes of course!

Why even buy wine overseas? You can get it all here. Is it that much better over the wine you can get here? Sometimes that wine is great when you have it at the winery not so much at home. Wine is a lot about the atmosphere in which you drink it. Maybe the memory will always exceed a future expectation.
Or is it the emotional attachment to getting wine direct from the winery. The feeling that, cool, we got some Italian wine. And, to bring it home packed in your bags, in this chaotic travel/luggage situation.

For us, a bottle or two makes a good souvenir that we bring home in our checked bag. We use the plastic bubble wrap wine sleeves for packaging plus our dirty clothes for cushioning. If I wanted a whole case, I'd ask the winery if they had a distributor in the US and look for it here. We did that once and because they had a distributor in my state, I could get a local retailer to order it for me.

We bought six bottles each from two wineries we visited in Italy at the end of April. We ordered with the winery before leaving - filled out the order form and paid. We can have wine shipped to where we live (DC) so that isn't an issue. It did take a few weeks to arrive, but that was fine with us since we were moving to a new apartment so it arrived in boxes where it stayed until we unpacked our new place.

I'm too nervous about putting wine in my suitcase even with the special packing stuff you can get to do it.

You can get it all here.

Actually you can't get it all here, at least not many wines from France based on my experience and inquiries. Many wines are distributed only within France or the EU, not export to the US. This is especially true for some of the lower priced "maison" or table wines you enjoy at restaurants and can't find when you get back home. The economics make far less sense to export/import lower priced wines.

And if you tour some of the smaller champagne houses, you can purchase bubbly that is not sold in the US. Champagne transports well inside a checked bag, less likely to break or leak than a wine bottle. We have only ever brought back a few bottles of champagne, or small batch Normandy cider, would not want to hassle with the numbers of bottles some people report here.

All wine is filled with a preservative called ethanol.

Ethanol is a natural byproduct of fermentation, not an additive or preservative. All alcoholic beverages - beer, wine, etc - contain ethanol.

I can’t tell the difference between a glass of imported Brunello (or Chianti or whatever) bought in a US store and a glass of the exact same wine purchased in Italy and hauled in my baggage. But maybe my palate is not sophisticated enough. It may not even be cheaper once you add the additional baggage charge (or the shipping cost) and the duties you must pay for amounts over one liter per person.

I prefer to bring back stuff that in the US is very hard to find (or much more expensive) and are easy to carry. Truffle products and bottarga, come to mind.

I agree with Roberto, there is no discernable difference between the same wine whether you have it there, have it in the US, and whether you carried it back, shipped it, or bought in a store. Nothing is added to wine that will be shipped, handling of commercial wines is not an issue.

I do agree that there is something of an influence of locale, used to call it the Red Stripe effect, vacationers in Jamaica love it, have a six pack in the US and they can't drink it. Not as dramatic for a good bottle of wine, but yeah, I would rather have a glass in Italy than Iowa.

I bring back wine because I had a good bottle and want to extend that at home, lots of stuff you can't get in the US, and for the cost (easily half what I would pay in the US for something similar), if I have room in my bag, why not?

I only bring back a few bottles (v-e-r-y   c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y packed in a checked bag) for obscure and unique wines that I have enjoyed in relatively obscure-to-Americans places (eg the Azores or Sardinia), bottles that I know would be impossible or ridiculous to try and find at a wine shop at home. Places like that often have wonderful, unique wines, that I'd never locate at home. Otherwise....the diversity of wines (often at surprisingly reasonable prices) available in/near any major US city is pretty amazing these days.

We just returned and shipped wine and olive oil home ... the shipper held it for us since we were still traveling for another 2 weeks so I think you could request they hold it until later like September The winery we bought wine from had a shipper they use. They actually put wine from another winery in the box to ship. Shipping wasn't too unreasonable for a case. We also packed two bottle each in our checked luggage which is normal for us and we've never had any issues.

Ive brought home pack 2 to 3 bottles in a wine "jet bag" ( amazon) and tuck it into the middle of my Away large luggage carry on. Ive in March in was 26kg and June 30kg. Which meant no extra baggage fees. There are many good Italian wines that you can't get in the States. I've been into the Pinot Noir's from the German speaking Northern regions of Italy. (Baden, Reinhessen..) Very hard to find back home in the States. I also like to get one we enjoyed to put away and let age. We shipped home a case last in 2019 but the price of shipping has doubled since then and the cost doesn't pan out. I think we were quoted 250 euros for a case in Santorini last summer. I came home found it online and shipped six bottles in ice to my house.

We’ve shipped wine from both France and Italy. It’s been from individual wineries as well as wine shops and things we can’t get in the U.S. So far, the shipping cost has never been onerous and the price point is comparable to what we’d pay here. It’s not just the taste of the wine, but the memory of where it came from and the conversations we enjoyed picking it out. If it’s just a bottle or two, (or four) we pack it in padded wine sleeves surrounded by clothes in our checked luggage.

On several occasions the seller has postponed shipment until the weather was better for shipping, which we appreciate. Sometimes you can get it shipped to a commercial site like a FedEx office so it doesn’t sit on a delivery truck all day.

Check out the wine on google. You can probably find it in the USA and purchase the same wine when you get home. I found this to be true several times. However, if it is a smaller winery you may not have as good luck. The local wines are produced to be enjoyed there. I love wine but don't have the $$ to spend on shipping. For instance, a $200.00 case of wine in Italy will cost almost that to ship to the states. Personally, I would rather buy 2 cases in the states than use the $$ for shipping costs. If you like a particular wine buy a few bottles and take it home with you.

All of that is just another person's opinion.

Salute and Cheers!

Lorie

I used to think about shipping wine. I remember, back in 1990 or so, trying to convince the gate agents that I could carry on (not check) a case of wine. I probably spent 20 minutes trying to do this foolish thing. Even then, before 9/11 and liquid bombs of the early 00s, they would not allow this. So, I checked a bag and put all 12 bottles in the bag. You know the final story - a bottle broke, of the red.

Buy an extra bottle. Go to the market. Get the bread, cheese, and local sausage. Enjoy the wine as the sun sets.

I remember, back in 1990 or so, trying to convince the gate agents that I could carry on (not check) a case of wine.

Interesting, back in the day (pre- 9/11) we did this often. You could tape up a case, make yourself a handle, it would fit in the overhead. I don't even recall a gate agent asking about carry-ons other than looking, at that time, if you could carry it, and it went through screening, you were good.

A number of cases, between me and my siblings, traveled this way, bringing wine from a little winery on the Mosel we had close ties to. Side note, Riesling bottles are one to watch out for, they tend to be thinner glass and no punt, more prone to breakage...one reason we did not check.

As others have noted, is it really worth the hassle? It's not like it's hard to find wine in the US of A, good bad and otherwise.

All my supermarkets have a huge section with a wide selection from all over the world, at all price ranges. And then's there's BevMo.