We'll be leaving on our South African trip in a week and would like to surprise a friend (wine connoisseur) back in the U.S. with several bottles of South African wines. We will be visiting Cape Town, Sun City, & Lion Sands. Our visit to Cape Town however, is not expected to include a trip to the Winelands and we ourselves are not wine drinkers. My question is, where will be the best place for us to buy a selection of wines and would we be better off bringing it back with us or having it shipped directly to them?

agswimmer,

My suggestion to you would be to go to the wine retailer Vaughn Johnson's wineshop in the Cape Town Waterfront. (http://www.vaughanjohnson.com/) This is where you are going to find not only the best selection of wines but also the best advice with regard to choice of wines as well as whether to ship or carry. Obviously I am not the only party to think that this is where you should go See http://www.fodors.com/world/africa-and-middle-that

Enjoy your South African journey to the full.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Selwyn,
Thanks for the tip! That fodors link doesn't appear to be active anymore though.

Selwyn,
Are you sure they are still in business? They no longer have a website and wine-searcher.com no longer has them listed. I'm sure I'll be able to find them once I get there.

AG swimmer,

Vaughn Johnson MOST DEFINITELY still is in business. They are one of the most succesful winestores in the country. I see that you are correct in that the main website really goes nowhere however rest assured they are definitely still in business in the Cape Town Waterfront area.

Try the Fodors link: http://www.fodors.com/world/africa-a...ew-185628.html as it is definitely working

Hope this all works out.

Selwyn Davidowitz

Very proudly part of the wonderful rainbow nation of South Africa

You can't have wine shipped into the US from a foreign country, so you will have to bring it back yourselves. Even shops that advertise that they ship anywhere, in fact don't ship to the US. Our laws prevent it.

Vaughn Johnson's is a great place to do your wine shopping. I would suggest that you ask for a pinotage, as this is a varietal native to South Africa and not often found on US wine store shelves, although it's more common now than it was a few years ago. It will be something uniquely South African for your friends.

Have a wonderful time!

Celia

Pinotage-one of the most wonderful wines! Nederburg is a fav!

Wow. I did not realize that wine could not be shipped back to the U.S. I guess that makes it a lot more difficult because Cape Town is one of our first stops and we'll have to haul whatever we buy onto the smaller planes to and from Sabi Sabi area. Hmmm... I could have sworn on our last trip that the tourists purchasing wine were having them shipped directly back to the U.S. Is this something new?

I would definitely go for the Meerlust Rubicon - a wonderful blend. You can shop via:

http://www.wineweb.co.za/red-wine-re...85&sort=3a

and let the wine be delivered to your hotel in CT. We did the same for our SA trip last April - got 2 cases delivered to the Saxon in JNB. Wonderful service and totally hassle free.

As they only deliver in cases I would bring some wrapping with me and save some bottles to take with me in the checked luggage. Don't check the case in - however carefully wrapped. They most likely break the bottles. Ours a couple of years back: out of 6 bottles 3 survived.

Good luck!

Enjoy your trip.

SV

Celia and agswimmer,

Uh uh. I do not agree about the sending of wines to the USA in a shipping format. Even though there was a time when I know that is was difficult, but not impossible, to do shipping of wine to the USA (many moons ago) it seems as if all has changed in this regard. In the past 8 weeks I have had 6 cases of wine sent to 4 different addresses in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles - YES Los Angeles and Portland. I used the local services of The Vineyard Connection http://www.vineyardconnection.co.za/. I have also, very successfully and easily, been sending wines to a past visitor of mine from Chicago on a 3 monthly basis for the past 2 years. All has always arrived safely. I used Vaughn Johnson's delivery service to the USA with success about 9 months ago. (I think they use Vineyard Connection services to do the shipping too)

If one goes to www.Southernwines.com (great website and service) you will see that they only sell southern hemisphere wines in the USA. I know their buyers and believe me the way the wines arrives on USA shores is via shipping from South Africa and other southern hemisphere countries. Thus overall I am very happy to tell you that shipping of wine from SA to the USA can be done.

So Celia you now have an excuse to come back to our great country after all now you buy wine to ship back home. (much easier than carrying) By the way what excellent advice you have given to agswimmer about our very own Pinotage. Thanks for doing so.

Back to the drawing board for you agswimmer. In my opinion the best way to go still remains Vaughn Johnson and DONT forget to include a bottle or 2 of Pinotage in the box.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

Selwyn, are you sending wine to private individuals, or to someone with an import license from the US government? If to private citizens, I'm delighted to know this! The US customs rules have been quite stringent in the past, and I didn't know there had been a change. Whoop-de-doo!

I don't need an excuse to come back; in fact, I've already got tickets to come over in February!

Celia

Selwyn, I sure hope you're right because I have been bummed about the "no shipping" rule all day trying to figure out how to carry the bottles with us. Now I'll just plan on buying at Vaughan Johnson and having them ship it. Thanks!

Celia,

I have been sending the wine to individuals and all has worked well.

Agswimmer, rest assured you WILL be able to ship the wine back.

Enjoy your stay Agswimmer and happy that you are returning Celia.

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa

We thought it wasn't worth the expense when we looked into this three years ago, but maybe things have changed. There are so many good South African wines available in the U.S. now, we just buy them here, though admittedly there is nothing like the wonderful selection you get in S.A. A favorite is Mulderbosch, which is carried by Costco! (At least it is in Los Angeles.)

If I go to all the trouble and expense of shipping some S.A. wines back to the U.S. I sure hope I don't pick the ones that can be easily found in the States.

It should be easy to ask what's exported and what isn't.

I'm sure I would have eventually thought of that.

Selwyn or anyone,
Could you give me an idea of what it will cost to ship 6 to 12 bottles to the U.S.? (Denver, Colorado)

Send them some Amarula too!!

I have been able to order just about any wine/spirit from my liquor store. It might not be that easy to find a wine they can't get. When we shipped wine home in 2006, it was about three times the price than what I got it for here when we got home and it took almost two months!!

It's the thought that counts - I would put together a case of interesting African wines (and Amarula) from your local major liquor store and have it delivered while you're gone. Sorry to be a bummer.

That's what I was afraid of.

I have a collection of RSA wines here and have over the years imported certain wines that I could not source here - it's a bit of a pain going to collect them though (customs forms and all) and so I do not do it any longer.

A friend of mine (ex-pat S African) here is a wine merchant and importer and he offers a very good selection of RSA wines - he is in California... this is where I get all my RSA wines and have for the past 15 years or so.

The owner is John Gorman.
Website: http://www.southernwines.com/

One of my faves for the past 5 years: Boekenhoutskloof 'The Chocolate Block' - delicious.

Enjoy South Africa!!

James