I have to move my wine from Michigan to Georgia, about 950 bottles. I got an estimate from the same shipping vendor I used five years ago to move from Mississippi to Michigan. I was pleased with their work and I don’t doubt they will do a good job this time, but the estimate was twice the cost to move about the same amount of wine. Can you suggest various vendors and options? Has anybody actually rented a refrigerated truck and driven it yourself?
Rent a van, drive at night, wine will be fine. Even if you drive during the day in the summer, turn the AC on. Not that long of a drive.
Good point, but would have to be a substantial sized van to hold 80 cases. Plus, I think I’m getting too old to drive all night. On the other hand, for the cost difference I could just about hire somebody to drive and I could sleep on the passenger side.
U Haul Cargo van has a 245 cu.ft. payload. Figure case sizes are approx. 1.5 cu.ft. each so plenty of room to carry additional stuff as well…make sure you secure it in though, would be a bummer to have it come sliding forward when you jam on the brakes! I would drive during the day with the AC on and a 6 pack of redbull.
I’ve had a few friends that have used Western Carriers and The Wine Mover for cross-country collection relocations. Not sure about costs but both were very happy with their services.
In the last 6yrs I’ve moved 1000 bottles twice. Once to Virginia from Texas and this past summed moved back to Texas. When I moved to Virginia I did so in the fall, with temps in the 70’s. I packed all the wine in shipping boxes and monitored temps in the box and in the cargo portion of a U-haul (no AC in cargo). Temps in the cargo hold routinely went into the 80-90’s during the day as it was sunny, though outside temps were in 70’s. This led to me panicking and buying all the dry ice I could find on the 3 day trip. People in rural Arkansas given you really funny looks when you buy 50lbs of dry ice and try to explain that you aren’t going fishing with it 
. Despite my concerns temps inside the wine boxes never got above 73-74 (inched up each day) and the wine was fine despite losing some labels due to condensation.
When I moved back to Texas I did so in the summer and had added 2 kids to the family, so moving the wine myself wasn’t an option. I went with Western Carriers and had a very good overall experience, though they did have some trouble billing my employer. I ended up having to front the cost and get reimbursed. Annoying, mainly because I had set everything up about 60days in advance and thought everything was good. But the wine move went very smooth without issues.
Try Taskrabbit.
I’ve used Western Carriers for one move, and another regular moving co. for another. Good, but expensive.
If you’re paying for it yourself, I’d just get some strong backs off Craigslist, and lots of shippers, and an Enterprise truck/van. Reconcile yourself to the inevitable losses that will happen during this process. I think I had some cracked Lynch Bages last time around.
Palletize, wrap tight, rent a reefer box truck with a lift gate and make sure you have a pallet jack. Safest way to do it.
Or get a van, reefer if you can find, and load it tight. If done right you shouldn’t have anything break if you drive more sanely than I do.
3 and a half years ago I used Xpeditr. www.xpeditr.com. I moved 1800 bottles from PA to Colorado. They sent me the boxes. I boxed, inventoried and labeled the boxes. They wrapped the boxes in plastic wrap on a pallet. Shipped refrigerated and delivered to my home. This was an extremely smooth experience.
I, for sure, would not attempt to drive it from Michigan in the summer time unless I had proper refrigeration in the back of the van.
Good thread, I just moved from New Hampshire to California and left behind 20-30 cases of wine at my parent’s house in New Jersey.
Any advice on moving/shipping only a few cases of wine across the country? Maybe 2-3 cases once a year?
I’ll be flying home to visit family at least once a year, I know I can bring back at least one case as checked luggage on the plane…
Thanks!
Chris - Buy a bunch of Wine Checks. Sign-up for a credit card that gives you some free checked bags or pay to check additional bags as luggage (checking will be less expensive than shipping the wine). Cheapest way to move the wine and legal too - especially over a few flights.
Thanks, that’s my current plan - I have status with United and receive a few free checked bags per flight.
Any advantages to a Wine Check over reusing an old shipping box with styro inserts?
You need the box with styro inserts even with the wine check. The wine check adds wheels and handles to the shipper (along with a logoed canvas skin).
I think the wine check is a little less conspicuous in the baggage claim area (especially the Wine Check in black as it blends in with so much other luggage). We have had wine stolen from the baggage claims area at EWR - it was packed in a regular wine shipper.
I ran a test on wine packed in styrofoam with an ice brick in the back of my car in full sunlight. The inside of the car reached 130 degrees but during the first day yet it took 24 hrs for the wine to go from 55 to 72. Air circulation or ice would be of great benefit for this job if you plan to tackle it yourself.
Keep us posted with how this goes. I’m currently a MA resident but anticipate a move to CA in a couple years for a new job. My folks also live in NJ and I could stash some stuff temporarily there, but want to figure out a good way to transport my good bottles.
Will do… although it likely won’t be until the Christmas holidays…
I have ~300 bottles cellared on the East Coast - in varying states of maturity. Hopefully bringing back a case or two a year will be enough.
I used Western Carriers - very good experience.