A couple of weeks ago, I posted a question regarding bringing wines into the US from Europe. Suggestions included styrofoam shippers, packing the wine into suitcases padded with clothes, etc. We didn't want to bring a shipper with us as we didn't want to shlep it on buses, rental cars, etc. and I wanted the wine to be as well-packed as possible if it were to go into my suitcase. We finally came up with the following solution:
We first purchased a collapsible duffel bag. This was packed into one of our suitcases for the trip out. My wife also picked up a bunch of bubble-wrap bags they use to ship jars out from the lab she works in. These measure about 6" x 9" with a flap and an adhesive strip at the open end of the bag. They're made of the "small-bubble" bubble wrap, so they don't take up a lot of room. We packed these into a suitcase on the way out as well. We picked up eight bottles of wine and aperitifs during our trip out to Provence. When we were packing up to leave, I put the bottom of each bottle into one of the bubble-wrap bags and then put a second bag over the top. On most of the 750 mL bottles, this resulted in one bag overlapping the other by an inch or so. The bottles were placed in a suitcase, well padded with clothes and banded together with a belt to keep them from bumping into each other. The duffel bag was used for the clothing that had to come out of the suitcase to make room for the wine. The baggage went from Marseilles to Paris and then Paris to San Francisco. When we got home today, we were pleased to find all bottles intact.
I think if you can handle a styrofoam shipper, then that's probably the best way to do this sort of thing. If you need to travel with fewer items, this might be worth looking into.