It’s the last day of our honeymoon (a three week adventure in Africa) and Cody and I are camped outside a coffee shop, taking advantage of their free wifi to frantically search for package shops that are open on a Sunday morning.  Why? Wine. We’ve spent the last three days of our trip touring vineyards in Stellenbosch, South Africa, only to realize that unlike Napa, no one sells containers to get the bottles of Pinotage we’ve purchased safely back to the US!  We have 15 bottles of wine and a bottle of brandy, all of which can only be purchased in South Africa, and no way to get them home.

I wish I could say this was the first time this had happened to us.  In the last two years, we’ve been on vineyard tours in South Africa, learned about Bourbon production in Kentucky, sampled aszu in Tokaji Hungary, met an absinthe maker in an artist community in New Orleans, hung out in vodka bars in Poland, and attended wine tastings in Napa and the Texas Hill Country.  We bring back a few bottles from everywhere we go (I often will pick up a few local brews for Cody, if I’m somewhere interesting for work, too), and the packing NEVER gets easier!

(I feel like I should throw the disclaimer on here that we don’t just visit boozy destinations when we travel.  We do love stopping in on local brewers, winemakers, and distillers if we have a few days in a city, though!).

I would like to think we’ve learned a few things along the way.

REVIEW POLICIES ON ALCOHOL IN CHECKED LUGGAGE

We found out the hard way that Southwest Airlines requires you have all of your alcohol in secure packaging when you check your bag.  They ask – and search your bags if they don’t believe you – when you board a flight out of Bourbon Country (Louisville, Kentucky). If you don’t have the proper packaging, you pay Southwest $5 each for their packaging, repack your suitcase, and then you’re good to go.

TSA has limits on liquor in checked luggage within the United States, and each airline can also enforce its own policy.  Check your airline’s website for the most up-to-date information on what can, and cannot, go in checked luggage and how it has to be packed.

UNDERSTAND THE TAX IMPLICATIONS

If you’re traveling internationally, plan extra time for customs to review your luggage and assess import duties and taxes.  The rate you’ll pay is often a percentage of the total value you purchased the goods for – keep those receipts! A certain portion of your purchases will be duty free, and the rest will be taxed.  When we came back from South Africa, because wine was so inexpensive, our total customs bill was only $21. If you were bringing back expensive bottles from France, those fees could soar. Some states also assess liquor import taxes when you’re bringing products into the state.  We’ve never actually had this tax assessed, though.

My general rule of thumb is if I can buy it locally, I don’t fly home with it.  If I can’t buy it locally, then usually the taxes are a small price to pay.

PRE-PLAN FOR HOW YOU’RE GETTING THE BOTTLES HOME

This is by far the most critical piece here.  Rolling your purchases in thick clothing and checking them in your cloth suitcase is always a risky option.  I’ve done this once or twice when I wasn’t planning to bring something home, and it’s not worth the anxiety.

If you’re only bringing back an inexpensive bottle or two, Wine Skins are a great option.  They flatpack in your suitcase and will keep your clothes from getting ruined if anything does leak or break.  

For larger quantities, or expensive items that you would hate to see damaged, invest in packaging made for wine.  After wandering all over Stellenbosch early on a Sunday morning, we found a store that sold us boxes with styrofoam inserts that each held 6 bottles.  These worked great in terms of securing our purchases home. As we found out the hard way, though, carrying three boxes with wine, plus your luggage, can be a bit of a hassle, especially when you need to clear US customs!  

We’ve (seriously) upgraded to a VinGardeValise® from Flywithwine.com for our trip to the Willamette Valley this weekend.  We were gifted the Grande 12-bottle case in black for our trip. This case has a list of features a mile long, from the high-quality polycarbonate shell to the dense closed-cell foam inserts to the TSA-approved lock to keep others out.  Yes, it’s an investment, but I have a feeling we’ll get plenty of use out of it. And, if I think of all the money we’ve spent in disposable styrofoam cases, we would have been better buying one years ago.  You can even remove some of the wine bottle inserts out so it doubles as your clothing storage, too. I could imagine clearing out one side for our trip to New Orleans later this year so I only have to bring one bag but still can carry a few bottles back from this fabulous spiritmaker we met two years ago.  

CONSIDER ALTERNATIVES TO CHECKED BAGGAGE FEES

Depending on the airline you’re flying, your status, and how many bags you already have, fees to send cases of wine as checked luggage can be high.  Or, maybe you’re going to your wine destination as the first leg of your trip. Either way, you may want to research alternatives to checking your wine.  Many shipping companies will arrange transport, and in some cases, the winery may be willing to ship directly to you (I had friends do this from Argentina).  

If you’re going the shipment route, then ensure your packing material is very sturdy, as parcel shipments can be tossed around a bit more than checked luggage.  Again, those boxes with the styrofoam inserts or a VinGardeValise® would be perfect for shipping back in.

We’re off to Oregon tomorrow morning! Follow along on Instagram as we visit some gorgeous wineries, take in the cooler Oregon weather, and of course, buy some great wine to bring back home!

Thanks to FlyWithWine for the VinGardeValise®!

Want to recreate some of our favorite trips?  Check out our itinerary for two days Hungarian Wine Country or a weekend getaway in Texas Hill Country.