I'll be visiting provence in june and want to know if there is a way to legally ship wine that i may purchase there home to the US. I know there is a limit on what you can carry hom, from a practical standpoint and a regulatory standpoint. I would like to share lots of bottles with friends. I live in Pennsylvania.

The best way to get wine home is to bring it back with you. The practical limit is what you can personally carry (or wheel). I have often brought 12-24 bottles.

See http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34764108

Best wishes,

Rex

Shipping wine back to the U.S. usually means working with someone who has an import license--very difficult to do on your own and illegal in most states, if not all.

Hi Cm,

Does PA allow wine to be shipped to private parties?

Shipping costs will be around $10 per bottle.

Bring some home with you and drink it yourself.

Be sure to try Rose and white Chateauneuf de Pape.

Thanks
i have liked a good,dry, crip rose for a while without realizing that tha are I'm visiting (provence and southern rhone valley) are well known for their rose. excited about that. On another note, I found online and signed up for a business out of avignon run by a Michael Rijken who runs "wine safari". The idea being that he picks you up at your hotel, you visit a few wineries, tastings and basically winery education (the whole process and such). You have a picnic or visit reataurant and then visit another winery in the afternoon. For me, he has set up Gigondas and a visit to Beaumes de Venise. Anyone heard anything good or bad about his service?

Is he the guy who's also a sommelier? If so, there's a report about his tour on the bonjourparis.com web site from last May: Mike's trip report.

Ira can you tell us the name of a shipper that charges $10 per bottle to ship wine from France to the US? That figure sounds very low to me!

I have inquired about the cost of shipping wine from France to the USA a couple of times over the last five years, and the retailers in France say it is easy to do while my USA friends say it might be easy but it is too costly due to the shipping weight and VAT tax. I'm in the latter camp based on everything I have seen or heard. My suggestion confirms what a couple other posters said, and that is to carry what you can when returning home. Supplement that strategy with drinking all that you can while in France!

I agree it is best to carry wine back. Or better yet, drink all you can when there and try to get the same wine in your home country when you return. With a little detective work you can often find the same wine, although at a higher price. But I am still questioning this $10 a bottle figure from France. If a letter costs almost a Euro, how can a bottle of wine be shipped for less than 8 Euro, even if it is by sea?

Unless you are buying really expensive rare wines, I wouldn't bother. I can buy a 1.5 bottle of wine in a Florida Grocery store for under $10. And what if they break? Buying a little wine at the duty free store when leaving Europe is a good way of exchanging the rest of your money before you get home.

I agree that the only wine worth shipping would be a rare and expensive one that you could not find in the US. And if I were buying less than a case I would carry it home. Personally, I could not imagine shipping less than a few cases and then the cost would be so high that I might as well go through a retailer in the US. I still would like to learn where I can have wine shipped for less than 10 Euro per bottle.

As for Pennsylvania, you would have to investigate whether or not your state allows you do that; I believe this issue was decided in a recent Supreme Court decision but not sure of the exact details and whether or not it applies to all of the US states.

Here is some info on the Supreme Court decision:http://www.wineloverspage.com/winead...wa050516.phtml

The aforementioned Supreme Court decision is giving rise to all kinds of changes in state laws. Ask for advice from a wine merchant (and maybe a wine producer) in your own home state (you might even find different answers!)

Yes it is totally confusing. And even when allowed, FexEx was refusing to ship to certain states due to the paperwork required. But from France to US I would like to know where the earlier poster got the price of $10 or so per bottle. (???)

Ira, if you have a chance would you give us more details on the inexpensive way to ship wine home from France, please? Thanks so much!

Ira???????? We know you are out there!!! Thanks!

My experience is with shipping wine home from Italy. I shipped a case back home (Texas) last April and paid right at $10 a bottle but it was wine from very small vineyards which don't ship here and the quality was worth the expense, to me. The wine shop in Montalcino handled all the details and it arrived very quickly. Hope this helps.
Judy

Judy thanks so much. So about 100 euro per case. Sounds good, since what you bought is not available back home and even if it were, you would have likely paid more if you figure in the retail markup. So the shipping can be a good idea if you are purchasing an expensive wine and you are sure you cannot buy it back home. I would imagine they ship only cases, not individual bottles but who knows??

Free the grapes website has a color-coded map of which states allow shipping. http://www.freethegrapes.org/wine_lovers.html#laws