Shipping Port to USA vs in luggage

[Tym Lewis]

Hello,
More questions as I plan my upcoming trip.

I am hoping one of you can suggest a simple solution for my puzzle.

It has been suggested that shipping port home may be better then buying a bag in Portugal, and taking it home with me on the airplane, as the rules of what you can bring home with you may have changed recently. In 2022 I simply wrapped my bottles up in my clothing, and checked my bag as normal. I promised myself that next time I would bring home more than five bottles.

My assumption is that I want to buy two or three bottles from three to five different sources.
I am sure most of those place will offer to ship bottles home for me.
How much would that cost? It seems the shipping per bottle would be quite high if I ship home four packages from four different stores.

The more challenging, but hopefully cheaper option is that I can walk into some sort of shipping company in Lisbon before I fly home, and have them package up six to twelve bottles. I don't really know how to arrange this in my own city, let alone a foreign city where I do not speak the language. Maybe walking helplessly into a post office or UPS store?

Would it be better to do all my buying at the start of my trip in Porto?
Do any of you know a great shipping company I could use?
I could find other people that want me to buy port for them too if getting more bottles somehow simplifies the situation.

Thanks for any advice!

TYM

[Glenn E.]

At the moment, I think that carrying your Port home is probably a safer solution. Especially if you have Global Entry to get back into the US. But, of course, that assumes you have an appropriate piece of wine-carrying luggage. I have both a Wine Cruzer and a VinGuarde Valise, and both work great. As long as you declare everything properly, I've never had to pay duty upon reentry. In fact I've never even been stopped with Global Entry.

Shipping your Port home for you is actually relatively rare in the Douro. It's getting better, but I would guess that it's roughly 50/50. In Porto itself your success rate will be higher, particularly if you're buying from the bigger names. All of the Sogevinus (now Kopke Group) brands will ship for you, for example.

The real problem with shipping your Port home is tariffs. I'm not sure how that works when you ship it yourself (via someplace like Mail Boxes Etc.), but for most imports you have to pay the tariffs upon receipt. FedEx and UPS will pay it for you and then bill you (and tack on a nice $15 "processing fee"), but smaller shippers may end up holding your shipment until you pay. I wouldn't want to risk my Port in a holding facility that may or may not be climate controlled.

[Stewart T.]

Carrying wine is an option if you are only buying a few bottles and don’t mind lugging an additional wine suitcase around Portugal. I did this in the past with the success.

As Glenn mentioned, Some producers will ship for you.

You can also use Globalwineshipping.com which is a service we help set up to ship wine from Portugal to the US. Many in the FTLOP Tours use this option, and I have personally used this service many times, and am doing so again on this trip to ship back several cases.

I have just had a conversation this morning with an authoritative source and confirmed that consumers will not have to pay any tariffs on wine shipped through globalwineshipping.com. I can’t speak to shipping through producers or other companies.

I think it is likely a more risky and expensive option of hoping you can drop into a UPS or something and ship wine.

[Mike J. W.]

Carrying wine is an option if you are only buying a few bottles and don’t mind lugging an additional wine suitcase around Portugal. I did this in the past with the success.

As Glenn mentioned, Some producers will ship for you.

You can also use Globalwineshipping.com which is a service we help set up to ship wine from Portugal to the US. Many in the FTLOP Tours use this option, and I have personally used this service many times, and am doing so again on this trip to ship back several cases.

I have just had a conversation this morning with an authoritative source and confirmed that consumers will not have to pay any tariffs on wine shipped through globalwineshipping.com. I can’t speak to shipping through producers or other companies.

I think it is likely a more risky and expensive option of hoping you can drop into a UPS or something and ship wine.

Stewart? What is the rough cost of shipping a case of Port using Global Wine Shipping to the US? Assume WA State for now. Would you know if they pick up from the Producer in Gaia or up in the Douro if I ordered remotely?

[Stewart T.]

PM sent.

[Moses Botbol]

If you can get all the wine to the airport, I would check it in and declare it. The value is a grey area but counts and descriptions are not.

Getting a lot of wine to the airport may not be so easy though.