Title: Transporting Wine Home
Try and Try Again
We’ve had some learning experiences when it comes to buying wine in Europe. In the old days we were satisfied with each of us stuffing a couple of bottles in our carry on luggage. Recently this has become insufficient because a couple of bottles each is too fleeting and impossible because we can no longer carry on liquids. If we checked luggage, we could bury a few bottle each in with our clothes, shoes and toiletries. However, this is risky too. As we all know, baggage handlers are not known for their attention to detail, particularly when it comes to careful handling of baggage. It is a give and take issue; we all want our baggage to show up on the carousel as quickly as possible and that comes with a price - namely damaged goods. So we tried a few things.
Burgundy
First, when in Beaune, Burgundy, (at the store Athenaeum) we bought a case of Premier and Grand Crus and had them shipped home. This was a big mistake as they arrived in the US quickly (overnight) but sat in US Customs for 5 days. While taste tests have shown the wines were not “cooked”, we are not convinced the wines preserved their unique and subtle characteristics (the main reason you buy Burgundies.)
Alsace
Second, from Alsace, we bought wines (at Hugel), boxed them and checked them as luggage. This went well. The woman who checked us in in Paris understood the value of our wines and plastered the box with “Handle with Care” stickers. The wine arrived, with us, externally undamaged. A taste test proved positive as well. The wine was a delicious as it was in France.
Hungary
So we took this idea with us to Hungary expecting to bring home a case of soft, food friendly Hungarian reds. We boxed the wines up as two separate 6 packs using boxes and packaging from the dealers (Bortársaság and Présház). We plastered the boxes with stickers and crossed our fingers as we checked the boxes. At the baggage carousel, we were horrified to find one box destroyed, smelling like a frat house and placed inside a plastic container. When all was said and done, two bottles were broken and the remainder merely had damaged labels (one label was missing entirely and only through process of elimination were we able to determine which wine it was.)
In Conclusion
The best way to bring wine home is to procure boxes with styrofoam inserts specifically for shipping wine. Pack these boxes and check them with your checked luggage to your destination. I would suggest no more than two 12 bottle cases per passenger. Load these boxes up with your favorite wines and check them again when you are returning. You may have to pay duty once you arrive in the United States, but we have never had to pay anything to this point. I don’t think it is worth their trouble for a few cases of wine.
