Sunday, April 15, 2012

Shipping wine from Paris to Seattle

Is practical to ship wine (6-10 bottles) from Paris to Seattle, WA? Thanks for any information.




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Hi I live in Seattle too. I suggest you go to your local liquior store here and find out the state regulations ( they will provide you with a booklet) as others on this forum may give you advice for different states or countries.





You need to ask about our state regulations and requirement.





If you buy the French wine and want to ship it yourself you need to know that it is against the US Postal service to ship it thru them.





You may ship it via other companies but then too you need to understand our state regulations.





If you are asking about the Federal Customs regulations you each



(spouse) are allowed approx . two 750ml bottles of wine each duty free. You would have to pay the tax on the other bottles which is minimal fee. If you want to ship it as part of your checked luggage. You will need to ask the airlines about their rules.




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As noted, there will be Federal and State excise taxes to deal with upon arrival...but that%26#39;s not the problem. The problem is that the shipping costs will most likely be exhorbitant.





If you want to bring 6 or dozen bottles of a special wine (one not already available from a US distributor) then I suggest you have it packed carefully for shipping and bring it back with you as checked baggage.




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Previous posts on this subject have come to the conclusion that it is just not cost effective to do this for such small amounts.





Depending upon the airport you can buy wines in their duty free and take them on as cabin baggage.




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I%26#39;ve generally found that it costs as much to buy a bottle of wine in Paris as it does to buy the same bottle in the U.S.





I have found wine much cheaper, for instance, directly from the vintner in Burgundy, but Paris prices aren%26#39;t cheap at all.





Obviously it only becomes somewhat worthwhile if you find a wine in Paris that isn%26#39;t available at all in the U.S.




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%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;take them on as cabin baggage.%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;



I don%26#39;t think so if you go through a US/TSA security check!!




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you will surely have to go through a second security scan before embarking for Seattle and so cannot take them as cabin baggage -- I would have them packed up and shipped as luggage and hope for the best





the key about having wine shipped is your state laws on importing wine -- I live in Tennessee and it is simply illegal to do so -- you have to arrange it to be done through a licensed liquor distributor -- I know that Washington has its own set of loony liquor laws and they may well also bar private shipping of wine -- but you need to find out. Every state is different.





It is probably cheapest to have the wine properly packed in Paris and then just check it as baggage -- I carried three expensive bottles back in a suitcase from Paris this spring and they came through fine -- I hadn%26#39;t intended on bringing them back but ended up with wine too good to waste and we didn%26#39;t get around to drinking it (we had bought half a case in Provence from an expensive winery with a fast talking fast pouring salesman -- the experience was worth it LOL)




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It%26#39;s not practical for 6-8 bottles.





The last time I shipped home was when I bought 3 cases in Burgundy. And then the wine arrived at the airport on a 90 degree day when we were out of town. Fortunately, the clerk at the United Air Freight office realized the danger of keeping the wine in the warehouse and brought my cases into his air conditioned office. I%26#39;m still enjoying that wine.





For smaller amounts, the shipping costs will outweigh any savings from buying in France.





Carrying with you on airlines isn%26#39;t easy any more. This spring we came back through one US airport that said state law (not US law) prohibited more than one bottle of wine per adult, even in checked luggage. Any more was confiscated.




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Last year I brought back about 5 bottles of wine, which is more than what is allowed for CA; however, I had two bottles checked and one I was allowed to carry-on (this was before the rules changed). I plan to bring back about 6 bottles from Italy this time around but it will have to be in my checked luggage. I looked into shipping but it is very expensive. If you check it with your luggage, just make sure it%26#39;s secure, and bring large zip lock type bags to wrap the wine in just in case something happens in transport, but it should be okay.




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Remember that you cannot bring any liquid over 50ml on the plane these days.



The US is getting very restrictive with what you can bring into the country. Friends who moved back to the US were not able to ship any food items of any type. Wine had to be listed by bottle and price and customs paid.




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I have a weakness for Champagne and the prices really didnt warrant schlepping any back. Picked up one bottle of Billecart Salmon Rose in the airport to use up the euros - but the price was comparable to what it would be in NYC with the tax.

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