Talk to me about buying wine in Napa

camo_bride · July 2011

So what do I need to know?

Do you bring it home with you on the plane?

Do you have it shipped?

I feel so unprepared for this trip (especially considering my condition) but plan to take advantage of my husband's drunken-ness to buy lots of wine to stock my wine room.

erin8606 · July 2011

It depends on how much wine you buy!! I bought some bubble wrap before I left home so that I was able to wrap the bottles I brought back and felt better about having them in my suitcase. they sell bottle shaped bubble wrap packers at many wineries but they are $$$ compared to just buying some ahead of time. Oh the other thing to consider is that if you put too many bottles in your suitcase it might go over on weight. I think we were around 3 bottles plus regular clothes per suitcase.

Shipping isn't a problem either. you can ship direct from the store usually or if you just get 1 bottle/winery then you can go to ups store and ship from there. the thing to keep in mind is that you want to make sure you leave enough time to hit the ups store. like if you leave on sunday, then you need to go before they close on saturday.

kreeper611 · July 2011

Both trips we actually bought a wine shipper there and checked it as baggage. The first trip we paid $12 for the shipper and the second trip a winery threw it in since we bought 3 bottels. Since we got our checked bags free on Continental, it only cost us the price of the shipper.

We specifically bought bottles that are hard to find here, or that are only sold at the winery. I guess if you wanted more than 12, you could just get another box and do a second checked bag but that cost may be more than you'd pay to have it shipped via Fed Ex or something.

ETA: we did mixed cases, but if we would have bought an entire case from a winery we probably would have had them ship it.

dana92504 · July 2011

camo_bride:

So what do I need to know?

Do you bring it home with you on the plane? it depends. most airlines have a max amount you can bring, even checked. it's usually ~4L. BUT when we went to sonoma, they let us check all of our wine (see my siggy!) - i think they're used to it in the CA airports but J wasn't allowed to bring more than 4L last time he flew here from KS. we didn't want to pay shipping at each winery so we took it all with us and went to HD and bought a shytton of bubble wrap, duct tape, and a couple boxes. if you do check it, make sure you weigh each box so you don't get charged for excess weight (*if* they let you check it all). i

Do you have it shipped? each winery will usually ship it for you - for a fee of course! and it usually isn't cheap; usually $20+

I feel so unprepared for this trip (especially considering my condition) but plan to take advantage of my husband's drunken-ness to buy lots of wine to stock my wine room.

Suzi-G- · July 2011

My ILs always have it shipped, they usually go twice a year. But they buy a LOT of wine-- like they will buy a barrel or half barrel if it's a maker/vintage they like.

houstonkdw · July 2011

We bought 2 cases from Acacia and had it shipped to our house for free. It came within a week.

BabyLoveTX · July 2011

We shipped ours from a FedEx or UPS store (I don't remember which one). We bought the box from one of the wineries, but filled it with wine from multiple wineries, and then took it to the store. I think we left on a Monday. I must have drank too much wine because all the facts are blurry. Plus that was back in 2007.

jobie02 · July 2011

I brought about 4 bottles home in my suitcase on continental. You are not technically allowed to pack wine in your suitcase. The lady winked at me and asked if I bought some good olive oil on my trip....

odear · July 2011

We went to Buffalo Shipping in Napa to ship it back. We went with another couple and used 1 shipping container to send it to Houston and split the cost. It was maybe $50 to ship about 18 bottles back.

camo_bride · July 2011

Thanks for the tips. We are flying SW so I do get two free checked bags. One of the people in our group isnt leaving until later on Sunday so maybe we could enlist him to do all our shipping at Buffalo Shipping.

HumpyPuppy · July 2011

You can't ship wine from California on your own. Unless you own a license to do so , it's not legal. Also, unless the winery you're buying from has the permits to ship to Texas (which is very expensive), they can't do it for you either. Most of the bigger/popular wineries will have this, but don't expect it from the smaller ones.

You can check it within your bags for a flight though. Careful how you pack it and ask the winery for those cardboard-paper-thingies that will hold it in place. Pack it in TIGHT too.

jobie02 · July 2011

HumpyPuppy:
You can't ship wine from California on your own. Unless you own a license to do so , it's not legal. Also, unless the winery you're buying from has the permits to ship to Texas (which is very expensive), they can't do it for you either. Most of the bigger/popular wineries will have this, but don't expect it from the smaller ones.
You can check it within your bags for a flight though. Careful how you pack it and ask the winery for those cardboard-paper-thingies that will hold it in place. Pack it in TIGHT too.

Continental strictly prohibited this when I went.... 18 months ago or so.

May be wise to call the airline and ask.

odear · July 2011

jobie02:
HumpyPuppy:

You can't ship wine from California on your own. Unless you own a license to do so , it's not legal. Also, unless the winery you're buying from has the permits to ship to Texas (which is very expensive), they can't do it for you either. Most of the bigger/popular wineries will have this, but don't expect it from the smaller ones.

You can check it within your bags for a flight though. Careful how you pack it and ask the winery for those cardboard-paper-thingies that will hold it in place. Pack it in TIGHT too.

Continental strictly prohibited this when I went.... 18 months ago or so.

May be wise to call the airline and ask.

I am not sure how Buffalo Shipping could stay in business if what they did was illegal.

FutureMrsJW · July 2011

odear:
jobie02:
HumpyPuppy:

You can't ship wine from California on your own. Unless you own a license to do so , it's not legal. Also, unless the winery you're buying from has the permits to ship to Texas (which is very expensive), they can't do it for you either. Most of the bigger/popular wineries will have this, but don't expect it from the smaller ones.

You can check it within your bags for a flight though. Careful how you pack it and ask the winery for those cardboard-paper-thingies that will hold it in place. Pack it in TIGHT too.

Continental strictly prohibited this when I went.... 18 months ago or so.

May be wise to call the airline and ask.

I am not sure how Buffalo Shipping could stay in business if what they did was illegal.

It looks like Buffalo has the permits to ship. I looked and each state was a different price, so I guess that would reflect the permit costs. There were also a few states that they won't ship too, or had limited shipping. It looks like they take the guess work out of how to ship. This looks like the way I would go. Thanks for sharing. Now, to get DH on board with a Napa trip....

kreeper611 · July 2011

jobie02:
HumpyPuppy:

You can't ship wine from California on your own. Unless you own a license to do so , it's not legal. Also, unless the winery you're buying from has the permits to ship to Texas (which is very expensive), they can't do it for you either. Most of the bigger/popular wineries will have this, but don't expect it from the smaller ones.

You can check it within your bags for a flight though. Careful how you pack it and ask the winery for those cardboard-paper-thingies that will hold it in place. Pack it in TIGHT too.

Continental strictly prohibited this when I went.... 18 months ago or so.

May be wise to call the airline and ask.

We actually bought a box that has a styrofoam insert. I flew back Continental less than a year ago with a case. My cousin & wife went last month and did the same thing.

erica_kaspar · July 2011

kreeper611:
jobie02:
HumpyPuppy:

You can't ship wine from California on your own. Unless you own a license to do so , it's not legal. Also, unless the winery you're buying from has the permits to ship to Texas (which is very expensive), they can't do it for you either. Most of the bigger/popular wineries will have this, but don't expect it from the smaller ones.

You can check it within your bags for a flight though. Careful how you pack it and ask the winery for those cardboard-paper-thingies that will hold it in place. Pack it in TIGHT too.

Continental strictly prohibited this when I went.... 18 months ago or so.

May be wise to call the airline and ask.

We actually bought a box that has a styrofoam insert. I flew back Continental less than a year ago with a case. My cousin & wife went last month and did the same thing.

This is what we did. We bought one from one of the wineries and used it as one of our free bags.

HumpyPuppy · July 2011

I had no issues flying it back on Continental last September. I had to check it though.

Talk to me about buying wine in Napa

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