Good Morning!

I received an email asking me about shipping wines and it ask about why some states allow shipping and some do not and how do you get wines home when you are traveling.

Let me first say state to state shipping is kinda complex. I am not sure I will answer all your questions but I will tell you what I know and help you get your wines home when you travel!

OK first rule no matter what, you can not ship wine through the US postal system (or at least you are not supposed to). Back when I was still making wine in the basement and I would ship my wines out for others to try or for competitions. I wrapped up my bottles and put them in the mail and it worked for a while…then I get in trouble (screamed at more like) by a postal worker in the Carmel, Indiana post office and felt like a little kid who had peed his pants sitting on Santa’s lap….I am still emotionally scarred from that and that was at least 16 years ago.

If you are shipping wine an it is just a couple of bottles, I would say go buy the correct shipping boxes for wine, they have Styrofoam sleeves in them and you place each bottle in a slot and tape it up and then head to UPS. UPS will be glad to ship it. If you tell them it is wine in the box, they will make the person receiving the wine be 21 and sign for the package. If I was not aware who would be answering the door when I was shipping wine, I told them it was apple juice.

Of course all this happened before I started making “real” wine and I needed to follow the regulations. Since 9/11 so much of our rules are to save us from the crazies who would be shipping explosives and I will gladly adhere to the rules so I stay off the list of maybe’s when something outrageous happens within the shipping industry.

If you are in wine country or out visiting vineyards and you want to purchase wine to take home, you have a couple of choices…here is what I do, I either have the winery ship the wine to my home directly, I pick up a box to ship in that holds 12 bottles with the Styrofoam sleeves and as I go from place to place I fill up the box and the morning I am heading home I ship it to my home from the local UPS, or there is this awesome piece of luggage that you can buy that holds either 6 or 12 bottles, fill it up with your new wines and when you get to the airport, check it in like any other piece of luggage. I find this last solution to me my favorite.

I travel with wine all the time, but you can not carry it on to the plane anymore, the folks at security are not going to let that happen, and forget having your corkscrew in your pocket either. When I am visiting clients, I load up the wines I want to share with them and check in my “wine bag” and then my personal stuff goes in the overhead and it works out perfectly.

Shipping state to state is regulated by each state and there are only 10 states that have a “free trade” system, so check with your state to find a work around to get your wine home. When I lived in Indiana, I belonged to a wine club and every month the club would ship the wine to Illinois where it would be repacked and then driven to my home in Indianapolis. It is a lot of work and costs much more but the wines were not available.

I am a huge fan of trying wines that are not available in the stores, so I follow a lot of winemakers on Twitter and watch what they are drinking and then when I am in the area, I make an appointment to stop into their tasting room. I love watching for Winemaker’s dinner’s in my local area, they have them at Morton’s steakhouse and Ruth’s Chris from time to time and many of the places like Sullivan’s have them regularly and I learn so much about the wines and winemaker and I expand my wine select and you can buy those wines at the dinner too.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to get your wine to your house.

Like I said, every state is different, so find out your laws before ordering something that you have to have shipped to grandma’s then you have to drive to go get it!

Much LOVE and wine,

Tammi