I bought 12 bottles of wine from a retailer in France. I paid $145 to ship the 12 bottles to the USA. I just received a 56 page invoice from Fedex totaling $58 in fees. I assumed the $145 shipping would cover the cost to receive the wine, but I’ve never done this before and just trying to understand the process. Is $200 a reasonable price to ship 12 bottles of wine from France to USA, and is it common practice to pay the customs/FDA fees separately? Thanks for your help.
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I sent back a case and a half from Piedmont about a month ago, and it cost me 240 Euros (~$281) and was delivered in less than a week. I didn’t receive any other bills. Given the cost at the winery of some of the older wines I had shipped back, I’m pretty happy.
I buy from Europe pretty often. I ship from Italy and Germany for around $100/case and use Domaine / Davies Turner to forward wine from the UK for $12/btl. The only time I incurred additional fees was during the tariffs when buying some Bordeaux from the UK, but the merchant was kind enough to cover them. Super easy every time. Never bought from France though.
I seem to remember checking Decantalo’s site, and it was $120/6pack door to door, customs inclusive. One has to put in various details (destination, btl size etc) to get the estimates.
Self importing / shipping is never going to be low cost.
Circling back to this, I inquired with the retailer that I bought the 12 bottles from in France, shipment to USA for $145. They are saying that I am responsible for the duties and such ($70 now), and imply that it is law. From retailer:
When you choose delvery to USA, you pay your order VAT excluded.
So when the package cross borders, you have to pay VAT to governement + some customs tax to Fedex.
Should you have any doubt, I invite you to check on government website, you should find all informations related.
Again, I’m trying to understand for future purchases. It sounds like $20 a bottle from Europe to USA is typical.
I don’t think they mean “pay VAT to government.”
I think they mean pay customs duties to the IRS.
The only way I’m aware of to avoid those is to bring the bottles with you on your flight back in which case there is an allowance of a certain number of bottles (don’t recall the specifics) you can bring back duty free. You can still avoid VAT on those as well with the right paperwork.
That’s my impression.
I don’t buy wine shipped to the US, but I do buy whisky and it is common/customary for the shipping services to pay duties as an accommodation, for which they charge the recipient. If they don’t pay duties for you, the wine/spirits won’t be released from customs until you pay the govt.
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The Fedex notices state that they deliver the packages and bill you duties later in order to keep things moving smoothly. They state this repeatedly on the invoice, which makes me think its a new change or they want to point out how nice they are being in not holding up your delivery. Which I did appreciate in Minnesota with winter looming.
Joe that happened for me on something not wine from France - received an invoice a week later for around 20 bucks.
Yeah you’re going to have to pay duties on the US side, that just is what it is. As for the price, $20 a bottle doesn’t sound unreasonable for shipping a one-off case. However there have been plenty of threads on here previously that have discussed better pricing when shipping a larger quantity (such as a pallet).
Sounds completely reasonable. How would a French retailer pay US customs when the wine has left their hands long before it arrives here?
Also, a wine shipping company might quote you an all-in prices, but since FedEx doesn’t specialize, I can see how they want to pass through whatever they had to pay get the wine through customs.
As for the US VAT reference, I think some states may contend that you should pay their sales tax on arrival. VAT is essentially a sales tax.
For what it’s worth, I paid about $70 a case 20 years ago all-in for shipment by sea, but the shipment was mislaid in Dijon for a year and I think the shipper may have simply forgotten to pass on the duty when they finally found the wine and delivered it. So $145 for shipping alone by FedEx doesn’t sound surprising.
Duty on a case shouldn’t be $70. I paid about $250 on 2 pallets. Sales tax is a different story and different conversation and has nothing to do with FedEx.
A lot of it can depend on how the box is labeled. I had a case come by air from Belgium a couple of years ago and they labeled it as a gift and low value and I paid nothing.
There are all kinds of fees.
On smaller shipments the FDA entry alone is ~$25–.
Then there are duties assigned per liter based on the ABV or sparkling and then there is a merchandise processing fee based on the value.
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Circling back to this as I was recently in Assisi and found a wine store that offered a 35€/case shipping deal to the USA. Given the other prices quoted on this thread, should I be skeptical? I fear cheap shipping costs will mean long and potentially damaging travel times.
As mentioned above, the $35 is likely just the cost of the carrier, NOT importation duties and sales taxes due upon import.
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Years ago I made contact with Ziegler’s, and thru the depot and office in Sorgues was able to ship 12 cases on 7 occasions. I had a custom office that said I could clear the wine, and the shipping costs (the first shipment was around $800, and the last shipment was around $1200)
(airfreight) were paid in cash after the weight of the shipment was arrived at with latest shipping costs. Had to pay a drop fee at the freight warehouse ($50) and then customs, which ran about $45 for the 12 cases. Had to get a winery that would provide export papers, and was registered with US FDA. Wish I could have filmed the ins and outs of this. When the Madame who was handling this wasn’t around, her boss refused to do it, and Madame from the winery hung up and just shrugged her shoulders when he wouldn’t even help her! Then my customs person retired, and it was always an adventure getting the wine cleared, but somehow I was successful. Changed location’s, and one time the officer just said enjoy your wine signed the paperwork clearing the 12 cases, and didn’t charge me anything! Unfortunately my connection at Ziegler’s quit working, and no one would help! The French can be amazingly helpful, and unbelievably impossible. Still drinking the shrinking stash, and every bottle is a memory of those adventures.
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An additional point to my post, that having a winery doing the export papers, the VAT was eliminated, and that saved about 20% off the winery prices. That was a nice saving.