I 'll be visiting napa-sonoma in a few weeks. Calofornia wine is expensive here in New York. Do the vineyards ship wine upon request? If I have to do it myself how would I do it? Has anyone done it? Did any bottle break?
Thanks,
Mohan
ps. I have learned alot in this forum than reading guidebooks. Just want to express my gratitude here.

FYI, there are only a few states (13?) that allow wine shipments coming in, I don't believe NY is one of them. You'll hear a lot about this when you visit the wineries and probably be asked to sign some petitions. The wineries are currently working to have these laws repealed in most other states. If, indeed, NY does allow shipments coming in do join the wine clubs at the various wineries. Joseph Phelps is one of my favorites. Also, Fedex and UPS don't allow you to ship wine either (knowingly). I'd suggest carrying as much as possible on the plane.

Here is a link to a guide about what states you can/cannot ship wine to. Just found it on this forum this morning:

http://www.wineinstitute.org/shipwine/

Someone on this forum mentioned any wine shop you could purchase shipping material for about $10 per case and buying your wines at Safeway Food store - much cheaper than the wineries. You could ship the wine home with your airline checked baggage.

Budman makes a great point. I found that nearly every major winery sells their wines at considerably higher prices than you can find in many winestores or even Safeway. Or even far better prices at places like Trader Joes.

On the other hand, a highlight of my trip to Sonoma was going to Raffanelli, a great small winery with sinful Zinfandel and great Cabernet that is not available in stores at all, and rarely but sometimes found at good restaurants. A find like that deserves the effort of shipping -- but again, they don't have wine to ship. Their wines are only available once a year as they are released and shipped by them. So if you are in a state where shipping is forbidden, you are out of luck (as I am in Florida). Or you need a friend in California to receive it for you and then personally ship it on to you (technically illegal).

I'm sure this is extremely tacky but when we went to Sonoma Valley, we took a hard sided rolling cooler with us. We loaded up our wine in there, wrapped it in duct tape, and checked it with our luggage.

I also have been known to pack wine in my luggage. I had 10 bottles coming in from Australia, declared them all, and customs never blinked. Wrpa the bottles in plastic bag,s preferably zip-lock and cushion them with your dirty clothes.

Try Mail Boxes Etcetera. They were very helpful on shipping wine. Very pricey. In the end, I bet the wine is cheaper in New York than shipping. My suggestion is to identify those wines you really like, call your favorite wine shop and see if they carry the wine or can order a case for you. Save shipping for those small wineries that do not have distribution in your area.

We get 1/2 cases of wine shipped to us very frequently from a friend with a wine shop in Los Angeles. We are in NY. I think there is a restriction as to how many bottles and how often, but we get about 6 bottles every 8 weeks. I forget how it is shipped, maybe UPS. I can check tonight and reply again.

When we ship wine, excuse me, "homemade pickles" ;-D, to friends/family in "non-approved states" we buy the shipping stuff from Mail Boxes etc too and have never had a problem

Here's a funny website that addresses the antiquated "bootlegging" laws.
http://www.freethegrapes.org/

Kal

Aloha Kal! We actually call it "homemade vinegar." Depending on how long it takes to arrive at its destination we might not be lying!

Mohan, another poster in a different thread had some great suggestions. First off, wines will be much cheaper if you go to a Safeway grocery store while in the wine country. They will give you an additional 10% off if you buy 12 or more bottles. Get good wine boxes for shipping and just pack the wine up and check it with your luggage. We've taken a case of wine with us on vacation before (to give as gifts, of course!) and never had a problem with checking a box of wine. Good luck!

Spike,
We like the "pre-vinegar" too!


If mohan makes it over to Napa Valley, the wineshops in Yountville, Groezinger's and the one in Vintage 1870 have good selections of most local wines. We rally like the 2 kids who run Groezinger's tho.
As a Kauai aside but still on wine, we found that Safeway and KMart on Kauai had a great wine selection and the prices weren't that diff. from what we have here in Calif.

We even found one of our fave Zins, "Blockheadia Rhingoso" there.

OK...now I want to go to Napa/Sonoma.
Maybe b4 the "big storm" predicted this weekend since my bike will be out of the shop?
Kal

Do a search on Tulsa_Laura and read thru the thread on her Napa Trip Report. She will tell you exactly how she did it -- which is an excellent idea.

I read thru a Safeway flyer from the area that I got on line, and the wines are very reasonable, before the 20% discount.

Happy shipping!!

Thankyou all. You are all so helpful and i learn so much from this website.
mohan

When we went to Sonoma and Napa we noticed some of the wines were definetely more expensive there than home, but there are many limited wines that are available only in California and not shipped out of state.We bought several bottles and stuck them in our "dirty" luggage bag. One of the fun things was that the "big" new thing is the olive oil tastings and I wished we had investigated it further in Ellenville. We brought home olive oil, bottles of great sherry and a few bottles of wine, should have bought more sherry and olive oil.

I don't think it makes sense to ship or bring back wine just so save a few bucks. First, if you ship the wine should be palcked in a stryofam lined box to protect the wine and that adds to the cost.

It DOES make sense to ship or carry back wines from small producers that you can't find in your hometown.

I bring back wine from a few special vineyards that only produce 400-600 cases. some of them are highly rated (i.e. not cheap) but they are impossible to find on the East Coast.

Folks,
i didn't mean to ship back wine to save a few bucks. i was thinking of the wine that I am about to fall in love with.
Dick,
can i ask you what treasures did you find in Napa? if you have the address of vineyards handy, I would appreciate. Thanks,
mohan

Dick, Me too. Going to Sonoma Memorial Weekend. Any recommendations for outstanding Pinot Noir and Sonoma Zins. Will be in Healdsburg area.

I make my own wine here in New Jersey from California grapes (Lodi region). Mostly do Cabs, Cab/Merlot mix, some old vine zins, and red Italian mixes. Haven't had much luck though with Pinot Noir grapes - seems to be hit or miss, mostly miss.

Budman, for a winning Sonoma zin winery, you must visit Ridge. They are located just north of Healdsburg. You can find more info at www.ridgewine.com. Enjoy!

If you decided to carry wine back with you instead, I would consider not putting wine in my checked luggage especially considering the new regulations. I wouldn't feel quite secure that the inspectors/baggage handlers wouldn't break/take/badly repack a treasured bottle, especially if it were a pricey one. I would suggest possibly taking wine on as carry-on luggage and storing it at your feet. Upon returning from Oregon, we put about 10 bottles of good Pinot into two small, duffel style bags with thick cardboard bottoms, each protected by a few layers of bubble wrap and took them with us on the plane. That way we were sure that the wine would be well handled, and we wouldn't open our luggage to find that everything inside was ruined by one broken bottle of red.

As for shipping, I know that my wine club ships in styrofoam containers specifically designed for wine bottles. I do wish they could come up with something a bit more environmentally friendly, but perhaps you could ask a winery with a wine club if you could buy some from them so you could ship them yourself locally.

Most of what is available at the vineyards is also available in retail stores. I've bought some vintages that were no longer available at retail.

The small vineyards usually do not have a tasting room or tour.

The best way, I think, to get small production "finds" is to locate a small quality wine shop where you can converse with an owner. (When in Sonoma I visit the Sonoma Wine Shop).

PS. When carrying wine back on the plane( in carboard boxes with handles), I always wrap the bottles in 2-3 sheets of newspaper to insulate and protect the wine.