Shipping wines home from France

[Dan_A]

I used Côte d’Or imports as a recommendation from this board when I was in Burgundy and they were super helpful. The minimum is 6 bottles to pickup (as to avoid VAT) and it was all pretty straightforward. I got about 3 cases and they are currently on their way to NYC.

[Lee_Short]

@Ed Kurtzman

Rich, since you’ll be going to Burgundy, it will be worth it to check out the Caveau de Chassagne. It’s an awesome store with excellent prices. They also happen to be shipping experts. If you buy a decent number of bottles from them, they’ll probably be okay with shipping the wines that you bought elsewhere. Last time I checked, their shipping added around $10 to $12 a bottle in shipping costs. Not too bad considering these are wines that are hard to find in the US, and their prices are so much lower there.

I was going to suggest the same thing. . . .[snip]. . . If you know what you are doing, you can get some great deals where you come out way ahead of costs purchased here. In this case it wasn’t planning as much as it was luck.

You don’t really have to know what you’re doing, IME, they are plenty happy to give some expert guidance, and will also pour tastes. The key is phrasing your question something like “Tell me about the three best red Chassagnes that you have in stock”. That’s how I found out about Moreau and Fontaine-Gagnard, among others.

Admittedly, I haven’t set foot in the store in a decade – things could be different these days.

[John_Morris]

bump for this thread.
Since the thread is a handful of years old, any recent experiences ? suggestions? Ill be in Bourgogne in 3 weeks and would like to weigh my options in bringing/shipping as much wine as i can acquire. Cheers in advance

It’s been an age – in 2000 – but I bought from this shop in Nuits and they picked up or accepted a delivery from a winery and shipped them to NY for me: Le Cavon de Bacchus. As you’ll see from their website, they’re not really set up for online commerce, but you might give them a call or email them.

[Jonathan_Loesberg]

Until a few years ago, at which point it became a pain to haul the wine around because I was getting too old, I routinely brought back a case of wine each time I came back from my place in France. I landed at Dulles. I always declared the wine and, for a short period, they did enforce duties, which were like 2$ for the case. At a certain point, they decided that it was more trouble than it was worth to figure out the duties and they started waving me through. With the new machines for coming through customs, available to various ways of checking in, you can’t even declare anything and no one much asks. They are really only interested in smuggling. If you are buying a case or less, I really recommend a wine check. If you avoid subways, it’s really not that hard to get it about. Any taxi you have to use will certainly be less expensive than any shipping you might arrange. If you are buying multiple cases, that is another story. There are organizations both on this side of the Atlantic and on the other that will ship for a price.

[Howard_Cooper]

https://www.cotedorpdx.com/import-services

Every winery and wine store I have been to in Burgundy that says they can ship to the US actually does not do the shipping themselves. They all use Côte d’Or Imports.

[Dennis_Borczon]

Ditto the above, Cote D’Or Imports is the way to go. At least in Burgundy. They pick up the wines at the wineries, ship through customs, arrives right at your door after your trip. I once lugged a case through airports, train stations, etc from France. It is NOT worth it. For the cost it is worth the hassle. Whatever you save in buying it direct from the winery will offset the cost of shipping. All you have to do is the paperwork…

[Sean_Haggerty]

just got an email from Detours and she says you guys are spot on and Cote d’Or Imports is the way to go. Thanks for all the input

[John_Morris]

… I once lugged a case through airports, train stations, etc from France. It is NOT worth it. For the cost it is worth the hassle. …

Your mistake was that you didn’t design your trip from the outset so you would drive straight from the wine region to the airport with your shippers.

(The best trip was when my wine missed a connection and didn’t arrive with me in Newark and the airline delivered it to my door the next morning so I didn’t have to schlep it from the baggage pickup to a cab.)

[John_S]

I know I am repeating what has been said. I would focus of what you can carry back as checked luggage. Just bring empty shippers with you as finding things like this, while possible, is usually quite inconvenient. And if that fails you are toast. Second best if you need more wine is to only shop at stores which are good at shipping back the the US directly. This is more rare than you may think. The places mentioned above are good.

There are many other ways to do this but they are cumbersome, expensive, slow, and sometimes simply do not end up working and get hung up. Plus nearly everything can be found stateside. Once you account for transport the wine is often not much cheaper. I’d focus on the few bottles you really want to bring back and check those with luggage. I’ve done all of the above many times.