Country-hopping with wine

I need a bit of advice on galavanting with wine. As I posted on another topic, we are going to be traveling to Lyon and renting a car. We will be spending two days in Tain, two days in Valence, two days in Avignon, and two days in Bandol before taking a train to Barcelona for two more days. We will then be flying to Portugal and on to Canada for a few days before finally arriving home in Los Angeles.

I had planned on bringing back a couple of cases of wine that we pick up from producers in France. But after chatting with my significant other, she says it is not worth lugging around two extra cases of wine everywhere and it’ll be a huge hassle with customs. She added it might get lost in transit, it could be delayed and an adult would need to pick it up if it was late in another country and on and on…

Would it be wiser and more cost effective with taxes and luggage fees to buy the wines from here when I return? Your two cents would be appreciated.

It would completely depend on the wine you are purchasing. There are some great bargains in France. However, lugging 2 cases around on that itinerary, worrying about temperature etc would really be a pain. It would have to be quite a bargain or some very, very unique stuff for me to do that.

Can you trim it down to 1 case?

I don’t think customs would be too much of an issue in the U.S however it may be different in Canada as you would have to go through customs there.

George

I just lugged 2 boxed cases plus more in my luggage back from Champagne/Alsace/Baden. It was a royal pain in the ass. The extra baggage fee was roughly $100 per box. There are many wineries in France that will ship what you buy for roughly $200 per case. Is the pain in the ass of lugging boxes on/off trains and getting to the airport with them worth the $100 savings?

Next trip, i’m shipping everything, but for what fits in my luggage.

Whilst no issue taking wine between EU locations, the moment you’re on the train you’ll want as little luggage as possible.

So one occasion where if you can buy it at home, then don’t bother. However maybe take the opportunity to buy a small few (maybe 3-4 bottles) that are not available at home, or perhaps older vintages that you wouldn’t see otherwise.

I also post on a travel forum that encourages ‘slow’ travel. I’m going to ask that they pre-emptively ban you from joining [wink.gif]