Shipping privately owned wine

I am trying to have eight bottles of wine, owned by a private individual in Boston, shipped to me in Indiana. After long hours on the phone with shipping companies (FedEx, etc.) it seems that is impossible to get the wine shipped. In this day and age I refuse to believe that I cannot make this happen. Does anyone have any experience with doing such a thing nationally? Advice would be appreciated.

Wine? You obviously mean artisanal olive oil

What Dale said. I've shipped "salad dressing" via UPS. Don't try using USPS.

Yup. The folks at the UPS store are happy to ship "food products".

I've used the "olive oil" ruse myself with some success. The only issue is that if they're fairly expensive bottles (say 8 bottles of DRC "La Tache" for example) you'll have a hard time insuring them for the full value.

I once had FEDEX figure out that one of my shipments was wine and they "confiscated" it. There's really no recourse if that happens so there is some risk involved. (Still don't know how they figured it out, maybe the packaging was damaged in transit.)

Good Luck,

John

[David M. Bueker]

It's computer parts (did you know that a well packed up 3 bottle shipper fits neatly into a flat screen computer monitor box).

These restrictions are tres bizarre... . Do they also hold for shipments from abroad? My e-mail box is lately inundated with holidays season wine gift box offerings from Israeli wineries, including guaranteed delivery to recipients in Europe or the U.S.A. .

If shipping to/from abroad is legal in principle, can the Boston source send to a friend across the border, who would then re-send to Indiana?

These restrictions are tres bizarre... . Do they also hold for shipments from abroad? My e-mail box is lately inundated with holidays season wine gift box offerings from Israeli wineries, including guaranteed delivery to recipients in Europe or the U.S.A. .

If shipping to/from abroad is legal in principle, can the Boston source send to a friend across the border, who would then re-send to Indiana?

Your question also rattled my brain. Suppose I wanted to ship "Homemade BBQ Sauce" to Anders in Sweden, Otto in Finland or David Lole in OZ?

If I were ever to try shipping wine to a winegeek in another state (perish the thought that I would ever do so, mind you!) I would probably box the styrofoam shipper, then place that box inside of another, larger box and fill with styrofoam peanuts. Then I would take it to either a UPS or FedEx outlet and ship it, proclaiming it to be anything at all other than wine and not bother insuring it at all, since I would never be able to make that claim anyway.

Just my $0.02, Sam
Mark Lipton

Thanks to everyone for all of the suggestions. It is very depressing that there does not seem to be a way to do this legally.

Here is the rest of the story. I literally stumbled on to a highly motivated, apparently legitimate, seller. The eight bottles, from '80's and '90's vintages, inlcude wines like Petrus, Ducru, Heitz, Duckhorn, Clos Vougeot, etc. Not all of the wines are from fantastic vintages, but I offered to pay about 2/3 of recent auction prices paid for the Petrus, by itself, for all eight bottles. My offer was well less than half of her asking price. To my surprise, she accepted.

She simply wants to be rid of the wines and get her money ASAP. For the price I got, I will have to arrange the packing and shipping myself. Thus, I will need to use a willing and capable shipping service. I will continue to investigate, but if I can't pull it off I will be happy to hook up a New England area WLDGer up with the seller.

A company I've bought from used to ship in "Bass Pro Shop" boxes.

These restrictions are tres bizarre... . Do they also hold for shipments from abroad? My e-mail box is lately inundated with holidays season wine gift box offerings from Israeli wineries, including guaranteed delivery to recipients in Europe or the U.S.A. .

If shipping to/from abroad is legal in principle, can the Boston source send to a friend across the border, who would then re-send to Indiana?

I have a feeling that Indiana is like Tennessee. When I lived there, hypothetically, of course, if I had wanted to have wine shipped to me I was technically a bootlegger..er, or would have been.

These restrictions are tres bizarre... . Do they also hold for shipments from abroad? My e-mail box is lately inundated with holidays season wine gift box offerings from Israeli wineries, including guaranteed delivery to recipients in Europe or the U.S.A. .

If shipping to/from abroad is legal in principle, can the Boston source send to a friend across the border, who would then re-send to Indiana?

The problem is the byzantine set of state regulations that resulted from the 21nd amendment's giving booze a partial exemption from the commerce clause. In many, if not most, states, shipment into state of alcoholic beverages can only be done by a licensed wholesaler. In some cases the recipient must also be a licensed wholesaler. Common carriers such as UPS, DHL, and FedEx have (wisely, IMO) simply decided not to get involved. The US Postal Service explicitly prohibits shipping of alcohol via their service. The "olive oil" trick (nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more) usually works.

As for international shipping--I'd forget about it. Here you have Customs and ATF to deal with (ATF is going to insist that the stuff be labeled properly), as well as whatever barriers your own state may have in place.

-Paul W.

Its all a bit funny for me to see that in great USA you can send a man to the moon,but not bottle of wine from Washington to Visconson.

Philip from Israel.

Its all a bit funny for me to see that in great USA you can send a man to the moon...

I'm not sure why you used the modifier 'great' but men don't get sent to the moon very often. I think wine travels a lot more frequently!

But, since moving to Massachusetts I too have become frustrated with all these state-to-state shipping laws.

[David M. Bueker]

Getting man to the moon was a combined effort across the country as spearheaded by an agency of the federal government. Shipping wine is a state by state issue.

Yes exactly,I realise that its a state to state issue with different tax systems.

I had thought that the wine lover may think that getting his stuff across America is no less
important than going to the moon.After all, we all have our own priorities.

[David M. Bueker]

It's more important than going back to the moon!

It's computer parts (did you know that a well packed up 3 bottle shipper fits neatly into a flat screen computer monitor box).

<Making note of that factiod for future reference.>

Wine? You obviously mean artisanal olive oil

LOL Dale, but I always say artisanal honey!

Well, Sam..if you knew someone in neighboring Ohio, where shipping is legal, you could have it shipped to her, then arrange a pick up with that person.



JuliaB

PM me for details

Julia,

The problem is actually getting the wines shipped out of Boston MA. It is quite literally impossible to do it legally. Believe me, I've tried every avenue. MA has unbelievably restrictive wine shipping laws.

Thanks.

Living in Maryland I can relate to odd wine shipping laws. My brother had less of a problem shipping guns the he inherited from our dad to California, for crying out loud.

Oooh, I see. Well, good luck!

JB