Can anyone recommend a company that will pack up and transport my wines and even my eurocave If possible? I am moving from New Jersey to Las Vegas so I was curious if anyone has done a similar move and how it went. My cellar is pretty small as I am new to the wine game ( about 50 bottles). Any info will help. Thanks
I’d probably pack it myself in styrofoam shippers being its four cases. The Eurocave would go with the movers. You can pay somebody to do it but it may cost more than the wine is worth unless you have some serious blue chip bottles.
Several years ago when I moved from Seattle to Southern California, I used Western Carriers. They did a great job, but they were not cheap at all, and I’m not sure it would be cost-effective for that small of a collection. If I were you, I would at least talk to them, though. No idea if they’d move the Eurocave; my move was from offsite to offsite.
Thanks guys. I will probably be moving the eurocave by myself afternoon looking into some sites. I want to use a wine moving company since the bottles I have even though it’s a very small collection are pretty high end. I went big from the beginning to start my cellar and I don’t want to ruin the bottles by Moving them myself. I know it will be pricey. More worried about the temp and humidity levels during the move so I would prefer to use a trusted company
I used western carriers when I moved from Virginia to Texas two years ago. Good experience but a bit expensive. My collection was around 1200 bottles.
My offsite recently recommended Wine By Air for when the time comes to move my collection from them to the cellar at my house I hope to construct.
I have no personal experience to share. Based on reading other threads someone else may.
For 4 cases of high end wine that I absolutely positively wanted to move from NJ to Las Vegas without damage, I’d put them in styro shippers and fly with them to Las Vegas.
Agree.
Agree. And if weather conditions permit and you have a good receiver in Vegas (wine storage facility/wine shop), I think you could also ship them via UPS, FedEx, etc.
Back in 2017, I shipped 900 bottles from Salem, OR to Tampa via Advantage (Salt Lake City) for about $800. They were excellent. No complaints. The only restriction: they only ship from dock to dock.
I can’t make any recommendations regarding transport from NJ to Las Vegas but once you’re here in Vegas a good potential summer time DIY transport solution is CoolVans. They rent refrigerated vans (modified) that don’t require special licensing to drive.
First, for a short term move, humidity levels are meaningless. Just focus on a temp controlled transport at 55º or thereabouts.
We are local agents for The Wine Movers, Domaine Transit, and Wine By Air, Int’l, and have worked for Western Carriers as well, but not frequently anymore. All of these companies will do a great job of moving your wine, but may have minimums or other terms that make one more attractive than another. They all contract out the transport to refrigerated LTL (less than truckload) carriers like Advantage, except Wine By Air, who typically ships individual styro boxes via air cargo. Wine By Air will often work with smaller shipments like yours, and for larger shipments they will also use palletized shipping via LTL carriers.
As others have said, I’d just pack them in styro cases and pay extra charges flying out. Been flying with 2+ cases for years now, on business, summer and not, its the best and safest/most convenient way. Just ask to have some stickers applied when checking in, leave the boxes open for inspection and tell them up front its your wine collection, I have not had any issues. JetBlue flies direct from JFK, and United does from Newark (best prices, actually, last I checked).
Storage wise in Vegas, the only one that seems like what you may be looking for is Nevada Wine Storage: http://www.nevadawinestorage.com/nevadawinestorage.com Way North, though easy commute (after traffic hell in NYC/NJ areas and CA you’ll find "Vegas traffic jam "means you slow down to 40MPH).
You didn’t mention the time frame of your move. If its in the next month or so, no need to worry about temps and storage, once you get into late April / early May you should. Once again, making a carry with you option more relevant.
Don’t be surprised not to see a great wine scene in Vegas once you arrive, when I went looking for a tasting group to join I was met with “Yeah, we have a great tasting group, we just do bar hops with plastic cups”; a couple of shops have weekly tastings that consist of mostly oak extract compotes, from my own experience, wine shops owners simply sell these since they know its what customers buy/demand (though one shop does have KB on the shelf among some others). Only 3 good privately owned wine shops, outside of Total Wine, with most others really only centered on beer and alcohol. Though buying online from CA shops means 1-2 day delivery with them using GSO refrigerated trucks.
Anyway, welcome to Vegas!
If you are in NJ, it should be easy enough to drop off with Domaine in Edison, NJ and have them transfer in their trucks etc.
I’m going to take one more run at doing it yourself. As was stated above, you have the most control if you do it yourself. You can pull the bottles from your cooler, put them in styrofoam, go to the airport and get on a plane. The only time they’re not in a refrigerated condition is from the time you pull them from your cooler and get the plane airborne, but that’s probably a couple hours max. And for most of the trip the boxes will be in the luggage hold where it will be quite cold. On the arrival end it’s similar, but if they’re in styrofoam I don’t think you have much to worry about. In some ways, the more valuable the wine, the more I’d want to have control over it myself.
FWIW, I’ve flown to Las Vegas and Cabo during the “warmer” months, and take wine, and my bottles are always cool when I pull them out at the hotel–even in Cabo where we sometimes sit on the tarmac for a while. And I’ve driven to Palm Springs in 115º heat (with wine in styrofoam) and had the same results. Plus it only costs you $25-50/case to check them on the plane. (I’ve carried hundreds of bottles over the years, short-haul, long-haul, hot weather, cold weather, and many have been relatively high-end [$250 release price wines, $1,000 auction price, etc.], and I’ve yet to have a problem.)
There is a cool (no pun intended) thread about temps in styrofoam vs. cardboard and the temperature variation over time here: Styro Shippers - Finally some data on their effectiveness - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
Vine Vault / Elton Potts 770-655-2224
Based in Austin, TX but they ship from everywhere. I have used them to get wine to South Florida and they are great.