The Four CAN’Ts of Shipping Red Wine
In case you want to have some bottles of wine delivered to another state, hold on! There are a few things you need to know before arranging for the delivery, as things can get complicated in the United States. Read this article to find some useful information regarding wine delivery and shipment.
This article will include the following topics:
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A birthday delivery
I had been meaning to send a very special gift to my sister on her birthday for a long time; and what I had come up with was wine; a very exquisite type of wine. The only problem was that the type of wine I was looking for wasn’t available in my state and so I had to order it from a winery in California and send it still to another state, Michigan, where my sister was living and studying. So I made for the internet and first looked for some wineries with the type I needed, then I picked my favorite and bookmarked the page for the day I wanted to order it, which was the next Sunday, two days before her birthday. The bottle looked so chic and elegant on the webpage and I was delighted. It actually made my day; you know, I always feel so delighted when I’m going to buy a gift for someone, and what is better than wine? Anyways, I bookmarked the page and went on with whatever business I had that day.
Sunday came and I sat down at my computer again in the morning, before going to work. In fact, I had been waiting for this day for some days now. It was a long time I hadn’t seen my sister and this gift was the least I could do; so I checked the picture again; yes, it was still there. I added it to my cart and was redirected to the ordering and delivery page. I chose the state and no way! A message popped up telling me that the state regulations didn’t allow shipments from my state! Damn! I had never predicted such a predicament. I hit the link over and over hoping it was a mistake, but it wasn’t. I came to hate all the federal and state rules for a moment. I was frustrated; I sat down on the chair for almost half an hour, filled with anger. It was not until my anger had diminished that I thought of an idea. I had a friend in the same state where my sister was living and maybe he could help me with this. The joy came back to me now and I suddenly remembered my job. I looked at the clock; I was late for work so I got up and decided to call my friend later that day. I called my friend on the way to work and luckily he agreed to have the wine delivered for me; a job well-done.
I came back home late in the evening that day. Tired from work, I decided to fix some coffee for myself. I was imagining how happy my sister would get after receiving the wine; especially that there had been sort of bad blood between us for the past few months, after a slight argument we had over the phone. This gift would fix the beef between us. I was thinking about such stuff when the doorbell rang. Who could it be? I never had visitors. Oh, I remembered, it was Mr. Carlson, the neighbor. He probably wanted to complain about something again. I got up and walked to the door with sloppy steps, opened the door, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Surprise!” said my sister and then she jumped and hugged me tightly. Mark, her boyfriend, was smiling, holding a bottle of wine in his hand. “Katie just thought we could surprise you before her birthday,” he said and I nodded with a smile, trying hard not to show my disappointment.
“Is something wrong Mo?” she said after I invited them in. It took me a while to answer “No, no. I just got so surprised”. But I was just thinking where the bottle of red wine was now and where it was going. It took me a while to shake off my thoughts about traveling wine and enjoy the moment. She was here after all and that was all I wanted.
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The difficult job of having wine delivered
First, let’s see why you would want to have red wine delivered at all; because to my mind, the best way to enjoy spirits is seeing a bottle in a local store, touching the bottle and feeling it, and then bringing it home and enjoying it in the comfort of your armchair or sofa. And if your life lacks the necessary hustle, then maybe you would want to go to a local bar or club and drink your wine or any other spirit you desire in its lively environment. These are the choices that come to my mind when it comes to drinking. But it might also be that you are on a trip and you want to drink some local wine or experience drinking locally. Even in this case, I would recommend going to a local store or a local bar and enjoy drinking.
Anyways, in any case, there are times that you may want to have wine delivered. You might want to surprise a dear friend or a family member by having some bottles of red wine delivered to their place, and it is totally fine; it is only that you might run into very slight trouble doing so. The laws revolving around wine delivery can get so complicated that I have summarized the information I want to give you in this article under 4 can’t.
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The 4 CANTs
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You can’t yourself
Imagine you have purchased wine and you want to have it delivered to a dear one in another state; So far so good. You have every right to do so; after all, wine is like any other item in many ways; it has a bottle, it is material, you purchase it, and it can be owned or sent; well, only that, you can’t. You can’t send it to someone like other goods. In fact, you are not allowed to. If it was any other item, you would have big shipping companies like UPS or FedEx to have it delivered for you; but wine or any other spirit doesn’t work that way. There are only some certified entities that can ship wine. Big shipping companies like UPS or FedEx ARE in fact certified to ship spirits but only if they have a contract with a third party.
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You can’t to some states
There are times that you haven’t purchased wine yet, and that makes it a lot easier. You don’t have to worry about shipping. In this case, you can order wine from a producer or a winery and they will have it delivered for you; they have the permission; but not so fast, hold your horses! There is a glitch here; there are some states which don’t accept wine delivery from other states. These states include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Mississippi, Rhode Island, and Utah. So if you have someone in these states, forget about having one or two bottles of wine delivered to them; you can ask them to purchase their favorite wine locally and then you can wire them the equivalent amount of money!
There are also some other states that will accept the wine being delivered to them only if the state sending the wine has a reciprocal deal with them; that is if the state accepts wine delivery from that state too. I won’t include the names of the states here as I don’t want to make the affairs more complicated for you.
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You can’t have it free
Well, as the saying goes, nothing is for free; and that’s right. Why would you think that a company would deliver your wine for free, especially in this business-and-profit-driven world? So there is a charge for sure; trust me. Of course, there are some benefits you could enjoy while having your wine delivered. For example, there are producers or retailers that will give you a discount if you order more than a certain amount or number. As an example, there are companies that give you a discount on shipping costs only if you order wine by the dozen; and even 11 is not eligible. Another benefit you can enjoy is when you become a member of a wine club. Some wine clubs offer you free shipment if you are a member; but of course, their ‘free’ is different from our ‘free’; you become a member and pay an annual fee and then you can enjoy the benefits; not a bad option to go for though; but not totally free anyways.
And to give you a rough quote on shipping prices, the shipping price would vary from 10 to even 60$ depending on many factors, namely size and weight.
There are other factors too though that contribute to the costs of shipments.
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Shipments to residential areas
Shipping wine to a residential area could become problematic. It is highly likely that the wine delivered wouldn’t reach the receiver and this will increase the instances of second deliveries; the person receiving the package might simply not be home and the case will have to be rebound. Therefore, the shipping companies will charge a bit more for such occasions.
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Shipping facilities
Shipping a wine package would need some extra materials like boxes or protectors, which will add to shipment costs
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Distance
Distance is another factor that might increase the cost of shipping as well. Shipping a case of wine to a farther distance will definitely increase the costs.
There are some additional costs adding to shipping prices; things like labor, gasoline, and if the company has some environmentally-friendly vehicles.
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You can’t be sure who can
You know, the thing is, apart from all the paperwork necessary for the production of wine, there is other paperwork for shipping the drink. Producers usually have contracts with shipping companies that already have such licenses; and these companies usually charge the producer for the DTC, that is, Direct-to-Consumer license; and the charge is usually between 10 to 15%.
This is the reason you should leave the entire job to the retailer, producer, or the store you buy the wine from.
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Nik Pegasus can
So you already saw that the best way to have your wine delivered is through a producer or a retailer. Nik Pegasus is a wine producer that can have your wine delivered in the easiest and cheapest way possible. This producer has shipping contracts and can have your package delivered to 11 states that accept wine from other states. The good point about it is that whether your package contains 2 bottles or a case, the shipping charge will be a flat rate of 9.99$.
So just go to their website, nikpegasus.com, order some elegant wine, and leave the rest to them; they will do it for you.
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The easiest way
As you saw, shipping laws are very complicated in the United States. So instead of going through all the trouble, it’s best to purchase your wine from a producer or a retailer and have it delivered. This way you needn’t worry about anything.
