Wine shipping from a Cali. individual???

I need to send some wine to a few people, one in Mizzou, one in Nocal., one in NYC and maybe ORE and TX. I am just an individual, not a biz.
Do Fedex or UPS still allow wine to be shipped by individuals from Cali to these places?
I am not really interested in doing so on the sly against their rules.

Not permitted.

You can always send them “olive oil” however.

You know, I don’t get the olive oil thing. I printed out my own labels from my account and set out for pick up. Both boxes returned. There is no place on the shipping label to indicate contents. If it looks like a shipper they will not take or open and destroy. My option was to drive 60 miles and pick up at the FedEx hub. Tighter restrictions appear to be with us. I wish a UPS or FedEx store would just get the credentials so that they could ship and charge a premium for the service.

John,

Your wife is ITB, right? See if she can ship it for you via her company’s FEDEX or UPS account. It will be legal and insured.

Or, have Roberto do it.

This is not for John, who’d prefer to abide by the rules: If you ship wine bottles, packing them in a way that says “Wine Bottles” is asking for a closer look.

If you have a wine merchant with whom you do a reasonable amount of business they may be willing to do this for you. We do it for our better customers and charge them our out-of-pocket costs (including the cost of the shippers) plus a small handling fee. By the way, the first four states you mention are okay but Texas may be a problem.

We do it regularly and there are many smaller shipping companies that are licensed to ship wine. As small as Napa is, there are 4 independent shipping companies in addition to the FedEx and USPS Stores.

Oh yeah, except to TX.

A handy way to avoid even being nervous is using a much larger box than necessary (say 3 bottles in your 12 bottle shipper).


Direct suggestion from my friend at FedEx.

+1. And I don’t think it has to be that dramatic (3 btls in a case). I suspect that if they see a 12 bottle shipper at about 40 pounds, there might be a flag in the system. But 8 bottles, 26-27 pounds…less likely to draw the scrutiny.

We’ve shipped a bunch of wine to family during the holidays with no problems for either me or the receiver, irrespective of the receiver’s state of residence. I always use our local UPS store. We have come to know the owner, and he doesn’t scrutinize the box. I’m not sure how the process works, but I think that once the shipment is accepted by the UPS Store, the rest goes without a lot of problem. The owner used to ask “what’s in this”. After a few shipments of “olive oil”, he doesn’t bother to ask anymore. The other question is “would you like to insure this”. I always respond “no”. I’d rather risk, in a styro shipper, that a wine bottle gets broken, than I would risk triggering additional scrutiny to the shipment given the value I ascribed to it.

Or you can take a smaller shipper box (e.g. 3 bottle shipper) and put it inside a larger cardboard box, maybe stuff some newspaper in between, so it doesn’t look and feel like a wine shipment.

I’ve always suspected that there is less scrutiny when you drop it in a UPS / Fed Ex drop box, or have it go out with your company’s overnight mail packages, than if you walk up to the counter in the UPS / Fed Ex location. I don’t know if that is empirically the case or not.

weird. people never ask when I just drop it off all labeled and stamped at fedex/ups. They just put it away.

Me too. I’ve never been asked what it is.

I’ve heard that Fedex will return the package to the sender if they find out it is wine shipped unlawfully, whereas UPS may confiscate it under those circumstances. I don’t know if that is true, just what I heard.

I was asked once at Fed Ex, and when I looked less than convincing in saying it was olive oil (I didn’t know how much it was an issue at the time, I was just returning a winebid purchase where they had sent me the wrong wine), the woman behind the counter was quite forceful telling me how much trouble I could get in for shipping wine.

So, I went and repackaged it into a larger box and brought it in the next day without issue. I don’t know how often that does or doesn’t happen.

What is it about “It’s against the law” you guys don’t understand?

Or was I just absent the day they gave out the “The Law Doesn’t Apply To Me” card?

Or is it just a no-card-required given – given the right genes/connections/upbringing?

But let a vigneron (Huet), facilitator (HAG) , merchant (Mare Island), consignor (Rudy) transgress … .

Yeah, I know – “There’s no comparison: we’re not trying to rip anybody off; we just want to transfer our lawful property.”

In The United States of America there is a process, available to all, for changing laws you don’t agree with. If you don’t profess allegiance to that process, then volunteer to address a high school civics class on how to circumvent “The System.”

And while we’re on the topic, what other laws don’t apply to you?

J walking.

What a charmingly old-fashioned post. Please tell me more about this system for changing irrational laws. I sure hope that it is based on the common good, the wants of the people, and cold hard reason, and not completely confounded by a few individuals with an economic interest in maintaining the status quo.

My $.02: shipping wine is not even necessarily illegal depending on where you are. But moreover, by way of an explanation since you find this so baffling, I find blind allegiance to the rule of law to be illogical. The choice of whether to follow a law or not is just like any other choice you make in life. There is a benefit and a cost and only a comparison of those two can tell you whether you should follow it. Just because something is a law doesn’t make it morally right. Slavery used to be legal and aiding an escaped slave illegal, but that was clearly in direct opposition to every current moral code in today’s western world. Many states outlaw same-sex marriage, and I feel that those laws are morally reprehensible. Shipping wine isn’t “wrong” and it is idiotic to think that it is. Look, I’d never advise anyone to break the law. Not because I have a problem with doing so but only to avoid any civil liability. But for my part I can clearly see why a person would contravene corporate restrictions which may or may not be based upon actual law, depending on how they are being applied, if they felt that the benefit outweighed the potential risks.

I ship wine via UPS on occasion. Mostly for family reunions and such. I reuse styro shippers. Never had a problem. Never been asked. I think the box still has the purple “signature/ID required” label on it too. Didn’t know I was even breaking the law. I guess it comes down to who’s taking the package and how much they know or don’t know or even if they want to push the issue.

Speed limits.

Public Nudity