For The Love Of Port

I'm extremely excited to be joining this falls Port Harvest I tour. This will be my first trip to PT (and Europe for that matter) so I'll have a lot of questions over the coming months. But to start off ...

How many bottles of wine do folks usually bring home with them on these tours? A bottle or three? A case?
I'm not looking to go 'shopping', but am more interested in wines that we taste on vineyard stops that blow my mind. Quality and un-obtain-ability over quantity.

Looking for experience and advice from past visitors.

Thanks!

For me,generally a case of stuff that I cannot buy here in the states. however I always declare everything when I return through customs. So far they have never required me to pay duty but better to be honest and up front and have them let you go without paying then for them to find it without declaring.


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I should have brought back a few more bottles on my last trip. I had space for 6 but I think just brought 4. You might want to bring 3, you might want 12. Yes, you should definitely go for the more rare things that are hard to find elsewhere. For the things you can find at home, the prices often are better at home if you shop around a little.

I brought back around 12 myself on my last trip to Porto. Do consider how much baggage weight you are allowed as that could cost you dearly at the checkin counter.

Do make sure you have some sort of insulation to protect your precious cargo. I bought inflatable holsters/casings to insert the bottles into and that worked nicely with a few towels around that as well.

Enjoy your trip. I am sure you are going to love it.

Mike K. wrote:How many bottles of wine do folks usually bring home with them on these tours? A bottle or three? A case?

As many as you can carry and feel comfortable bringing through Customs. You WILL fill up every space you have available.

I have an 8-bottle WineCruzer, so that's typically my minimum. Often, clothes will be evicted from the hard-side suitcase into a grocery bag (or something similar) to make room for more bottles in the suitcase. My travel suitcases vary in (safe for bottles) capacity from 2 to 4. If my wife is with me, that may mean 2 suitcases so I might have as much as 12-14 spaces available. The WineCruzer is indestructible, so that's where the most valuable bottles go. (It looks like a Pelican case, so many airports automatically think it's a gun case and give it special handling. I have to pick it up from oversized luggage every time I come back to Seattle, for example.)

Getting through customs with more than the "limit" is no problem at all. Just make sure you've documented every bottle carefully. Once you show the list to the customs agent, his eyes will glaze over and he'll wave you through. He may ask you a couple of questions, but if you have 10 different bottles he's not going to bother filling out 10 different forms in order to collect $0.80 in duty for each one. Last I knew, the actual "limit" is 5 cases, and that's only because at that volume it's automatically assumed to be for commercial purposes. A case or two should basically always be fine, especially if they're mixed cases.

Thanks folks, I appreciate all the wisdom!

Glenn E. wrote: You WILL fill up every space you have available. I have an 8-bottle WineCruzer, so that's typically my minimum.

Nice! I have the same size Pelican case with padded dividers for 8 bottles. I had been wondering if I should bring it along, sounds like that is a yes :)
I'll also look to pick up a few of those inflatable bottle protectors to bring along.

Looks like it will cost me an extra $100 each way to bring the second bag (Pelican) but I guess that is the price for obtaining some rarities.

I use horizontal Styrofoam shippers. I can fit 15 bottles in a military canvas bag that I own. Total weight with standard Port bottles is 50 lbs exactly. Declare everything when you get back to the States. Customs is more interested in total value than your case of wine. Theoretically you would have to pay duty on more than 2 liters, however, the amount is so little that customs will generally waive you through. Like most everyone else, I get mainly stuff I couldn't find in the States.

Eric Ifune wrote:I use horizontal Styrofoam shippers. I can fit 15 bottles in a military canvas bag that I own. Total weight with standard Port bottles is 50 lbs exactly.

I have a 12-bottle VinGarde Valise. They claim with 12 bottles it will weigh in under 50#. But I just used half for wine, the other half for my clothes, for one bag total.

Not all wine bottles are created equal. For most the glass weighs in just under a pound. But I noticed recently that an empty Numanthia bottle weighed in at a full two pounds. If you have 12 or 15 bottles, that could make a difference.

Fortunately, most Port is still bottled in standard glass. There are some exceptions, the Viera & Sousa Very Old White is in a short, squat bottle and doesn't fit. That one I had to pack in my old laundry with bubble wrap.

Eric Ifune wrote:Fortunately, most Port is still bottled in standard glass. There are some exceptions, the Viera & Sousa Very Old White is in a short, squat bottle and doesn't fit. That one I had to pack in my old laundry with bubble wrap.

I wonder what the taste note would be on that one? Haha