I’m considering buying some old, rare bottles from a vendor in the EU, and having them shipping to me in California. I contacted the vendor and they helpfully pointed me to the US govt site on importing alcohol, but said they couldn’t provide more guidance than that.
What should I know about having wine shipped internationally to me? Are there special preparations that I need to make with customs? Is there a risk that the bottles get stuck in some hot customs warehouse somewhere? How does the import duty get paid? Any advice would be appreciated!
I’m surprised the seller is not more helpful. Lots of merchants in Europe can handle the shipping.
If you are not accompanying the wine, it has to go through a customs broker at this end – someone who is licensed and handles the paperwork and duties.
There are shipping companies like Seabrook and Ziegler that regular transport wine across the Atlantic and can handle the customs aspect, but I’m not sure they will deal directly for small quantities.
I’m sure there are others here who know much more.
Thanks John - I did a few searches and didn’t come up with anything. To be more precise, i’m looking at an auction site (catawiki) and that’s the info they provided me. I couldn’t find a way to contact the seller themselves, unlike on eBay.
In California, you might look into how much it would cost to register as an importer, and then research whether it is illegal for an importer to drink his own inventory.
For instance, if there were such a thing as an inventory tax in California, then they might get all pissy if your inventory were to vanish without generating any sales tax in the process.
If you have relationships with any stores that are also importers, perhaps you could arrange to have the wine shipped to their shipper so it could come with one of their shipments.
One thing to check on: If the auction house isn’t keeping this wine in bond so it can be exported tax-free, you may have to pay VAT to the auction company’s home country, which is usually 17%-20%.
If the vender is an auction house I am surprised they can not offer a local name to help. There are plenty of importers in the US and EU agents on that side to help connect the two. But trying to figure out both ends from scratch is confusing.
Adventures in Wine used to do some of this best suited for West Coast folks. I am sure there are people on East Coast who will also help with direct importing. But you’ll need to have a way to get the wine in the EU to the appropriate location in the EU to be consolidated, shipped, and imported. It can be non trivial if you do not have a good system setup and especially if the wines need to be delivered somewhere if merchant does not do this easily. Most grey market brokers in Europe facilitate this.
Back in the early 2000’s I brought back about 100 cases of wine from Italy. I had to convince the individual customs guy that the wine was for personal use only but I had the paperwork to show this was the case. I had the wine air freighted to the States. When it arrived, it sat in a customs warehouse. I had to hire a customs broker. He really didn’t do anything other than sign the paperwork. I had to do all the legwork. Fortunately, I had complete records of where I obtained each wine, cost, number of bottles of each wine, and the listed alcohol content of each wine. The customs duty was based on that information. After paying the duty, the wine was released to me.
