Bringing wine back from Italy
 

My wife and I would like to bring back some Brunello and other Italian wines. How many bottles are allowed by customs? Would it be possible (and economical) to ship back some cases of wine? We've heard that Brunello bought in Italy is half the price compared to a US wine shop.

In October, we had a case of Sangrantino di Montefalco shipped to us at home. The wine beat us home by two days and cost about 90 Euro to ship.

From about five hours ago, on the thread http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34479190

=====================

Author: rex ([email protected])
Date: 02/28/2004, 04:23 pm
Message: There is no federal legal limit, but there is a limit on what you can import ("bring in") before you have to pay duty. In practical terms, this seems to be what will fit in your luggage; perhaps two dozen bottles.

But it is actually your state ABC (Alcoholic Beverages Commission) that has jurisdiction over your importing without a license; this is true even for driving your car across state lines - - and it applies also to the state in which your gateway (arriving) airport is located.

There are legendary stories of a state ABC official confiscating everything a traveler has brought back - - but I don't know how much they are urban myths.

There are increasingly some stories reported here of being able to ship wine back; that, too, depends on state law. For example, it is not legal to ship wine from ANYwhere to ANYwhere that is located in the state of Indiana.

Be prepared for your wine vendor to be unable/unwilling to do it. It might depend on your creativity if you can box it up and label it as something else to ship it on your own with DHL, MBE, etc. And to cost 100-200% of what you spend on the wine, in some cases.

(whoops, did I just give you information that you might use to deceive government officials, and break the law? Rewind... )



Best wishes,

Rex

======================

Might be interesting to find out what state Grinisa lives in - - and whether 90 euro was more than or less than the cost of the case of wine.

I certainly do ALWAYS appreciate getting to read about experiences such as this one - - even though I doubt I could ever bear to pay 110 dollars to ship something home.

I live in Wisconsin. And you may think I'm naive enough to pay over $100 dollars to ship home wine worth less than $10 per bottle, but I'm not. The wine itself cost over 300 Euros. I believe the shipper put something like "olive oil" on the invoice.

Didn't assume that you were naive - - it would still be painful for me to pay that amount, when lugging it home in luggage is/was/would be an option.

But I appreciate the info, whatever the figures involved.