Moving bottles from abroad

Not sure where to post this. I’m new to the board. My family is repatriating back to the US next month. Just learned the company will not allow the alcohol on the shipment. I am asking if any of you have experience with sending a collection independent of household goods and corporate assistance. I have 450 bottles I need to move. We live in Luxembourg and are moving to Texas. Thanks in advance.

It’ll be up to the customs agent at it’s port of entry whether or not they allow it in. Having paperwork showing you’re moving back to the States is necessary. If they do, you’ll have to hire a customs broker. Having a detailed inventory including alcohol levels helps a lot. You’ll have to pay duty and then they’d release the wine to you. There are a number of air freight companies that’ll bring it in. Maybe someone at your company has links.

Man that sounds like a really tough task. Probably easiest to get them in a container and air freight them so they aren’t out to sea for a month + port time and inland freight. Find a company that can ship them all for you containerized and help handle the customs paperwork.

It’s probably not helpful advice but unless there are truly unique or expensive bottles in your collection, I would sell everything at auction and use the money to buy wine on this side of the pond. Moving all that wine is probably not cost effective. Wine is fairly easy to source in the US.

But it’s just me :slight_smile:

Good luck with the move.

JF

I’m sure you’ve also thought of just adding 12 bottles per person traveling back. You can bring back your most prized bottles and declare at customs. Would need to look at paper to prove that you purchased in USA and brought to Europe. Otherwise you would need to pay duty in the us. Also if you plan for trips back to Europe you could store and move back piece meal for key bottles.

I’d consider bringing your most prized bottles along with you on your itinerary. There’s no actual limit to how much you can bring with you - it would be subject to your airline allowance - to how much wine you can bring with you, and it’s up to the custom agent’s discretion as to whether or not you are importing for commercial purposes. I would agree that I’d have documentation of your move to help make your case that they’re personal consumption bottles. You could probably have a Pelican type case made up with a wine insert–something like a Pelican 1615 could probably fit 2 cases or more vertically oriented with a custom foam insert made (and you’d probably be able to sell such a case here if you have it made). Assuming you’re moving with a spouse, you could each get 2 such Pelicans (they’ll wheel) and move 8 cases of your best stuff that way.

I’ve seen pallets of wine arrive from overseas at my wine locker, so roughly the amount of wine you’re talking about. It can definitely be done. Those pallets were the property of a very wealthy internet billionaire, however, so I’m not sure how much it would cost [wow.gif]

I moved back to SF from Switzerland with 600 bottles in tow. Biggest pain was filling out an Excel sheet for US customs in excruciating detail. Otherwise very easy process and duty was beyond cheap. Feel free to PM for details.