Hi everyone,
I’ll be spending some time in Anjou + Touraine in a few months from now.
Is there a good way to combine any/all purchases I might make during that time and have them shipped back to New York? Are there firms that specialize in that sort of thing?
It’ll be my first time over there, really starting from scratch on that front. Would be grateful for any input (even if it’s just to say “hey, that’s an absurd idea, it’s not gonna work!”)
Thanks in advance,
I would start by contacting someone in the US who has done that - and I would make that contact well before your trip. Having had to take in consolidated shipments every so often over the years I bet the response you’ll get is: “in theory it can’t be done, but here’s how you do it.”
I don’t know if this board is an appropriate place to post names for business opportunities but I will do it here anyway since I am not an agent for them or going to be compensated for the lead: try Greg Kramer at Voix de La Terre. Good guy, straight shooter. Contact details on their website.
I’ve never done it myself, but I hear the Mail Boxes Etc. can handle wine shipments to the US from France.
There’s lots of threads about shipping wine from EU. MBE or any air service is going to be very expensive. Easiest/cheapest way is to use Domaine and have everything just sent to Hillebrand in Beaune. $125 per 9L equivalent to NJ and you can pick up there. But you won’t see your wine for months.
What Andrew said!!
Only thing else I would add is that they have a minimum of 2 cases. You could ship one case but they would still charge you $250.
Also I am pretty sure, but worth confirming, that you will need to have an account with Domaine storage. If you have that already, great. Otherwise I think their minimum subscription starts at $350/ year and that gives you a storage capacity of 10 cases.
Interesting. So, I sign up for an account at Domaine and pay $350/year. Then, I can somehow contact them when I am buying wine in France and they will collect the wine for me and drop it at Hillebrand in Beaune, or do I need to drop it there?
Then it presumably gets palletized with other wine coming over and somehow ends up in my storage locker at Domaine in the US?
Pretty much.
Thanks for starting this post. I will be going to the Loire and Rhone next year and have been thinking about this.
As John mentioned up-thread, I have extensive experience in this matter. Message me with some details regarding how much wine you anticipate. Likely I can suggest best options and refer you to those who can assist you. This is not a commercial enterprise for me.
Another option would be to contact Cote d’Or Imports in Beaverton, OR and see how they might be able to assist. They handle wine we ship back to the U.S. from Burgundy. Import services — Cote d'Or Imports - Sending your wine treasures home.
I will offer a slightly different perspective. Unless the bottles are rare and/or expensive it is a lot of hassle to maybe save a small amount of money. Just something to think about. I can’t really think of too many wines from the Loire that you can’t get in the U.S. You can easily carry a case or two back on the plane.
I hear ya on that- and I appreciate the wisdom there.
There are a few chenins I love that are very tightly allocated here in NY, and even getting a few bottles from the estates (or from local shops) would be a welcome addition to my cellar.
And for cab franc, Couly-Dutheil in particular seems to have somewhat limited distribution in the states, let alone finding any back vintages.
So if there is a way to ship, say, 4-5 cases back, I want to look into it.
I have used Cote d’Or imports for smaller shipments from France. I also have 2 Vingarde Valise suitcases. For the one large shipment I did after the Hospices de Beaune purchase I reached out to a merchant that I buy Bordeaux futures from and asked if I could tag my shipment onto theirs which was way less expensive than I could have done otherwise. I just needed to be patient.
I know that there is an outfit in Burgundy (headquarters there and in Portland, OR) that will ship wine for you to the US. Cote d’Or Imports - Sending your wine treasures home (cotedorpdx.com) I know that a friend has gotten one producer in Europe to ship to Cote d’Or Imports and then Cote d’Or has shipped the wine (including also some Burgundy) to the US. You might contact Cote d’Or imports and any winery you wish to purchase from in the Loire to see whether this is feasible. Unlikely you will be able to do this for just a couple of bottles.
Depending on the cost of the wine, the cost to ship to the US can be less than the cost of VAT if you can get it arranged so you don’t have to pay VAT.
Whilemin Tuscany last year we shipped back several cases and almost every winery used Mailboxes Etc. The average price per bottle was about $8 to $11. It all got here with no issues or breakage.
Also, we never got charged VAT by a winery or the one Enoteca we visited.
No, you don’t need an account. Transport is separate from storage. Unless you actually want to store there, you just contact Erika. When the wine comes in to NJ, they store it for free for a month and you either pick it up or arrange it to be transported to your final destination. They can connect you with ILS if you want to have it shipped somewhere in the US.
Most places don’t charge VAT anyway to tourists because they know it’s for export.
That has not been my experience.
Double that. $700 a year for up to 10 cases, at least in the Chicago location.