importing wine into Georgia

After 25 years in Europe, it looks like we may move back to Georgia in the USA where my wife is from. We have gradually consumed and sold much of the wine we accumulated when I was very active on this and previous boards but we still have quite a bit left.

Does anyone know what the import laws are for Georgia? or North Carolina? Are either of these states reasonably permitting on wine imports for personal consumption?

Regards,

Robert

[David M. Bueker]

Your big issue will be getting sizable shipments through US Customs.

No matter how I estimate it, we are talking north of 50 cases. We have some time since nothing is going to happen for 9-12 months. Unfortunately, we can't hide it since it will be coming, mostly, from a different country. Anyway, if anyone out there has any knowledge, it would be appreciated.

[David M. Bueker]

There are services that do this sort of thing. They have been widely discussed on another site. I will try to do a search some time soon.

[Robin Garr]

I think it might be all but necessary to use a service. As an experiment, I sent back two cases from Northern Italy once and took care of brokering it through customs myself. It worked okay, and the price wasn't bad - the customs tax was per bottle, irrespective of price - but it took a tremendous amount of time and paperwork. The customs guy (who was very nice about it) mentioned that I was lucky to be bringing in an amount for private use. If I had attempted to bring back many more cases, though, he said I would have had to overcome the assumption that it was for commercial use (intent to sell) in which case things would have been MUCH more complicated.

Second, as best I recall, this is a federal issue, not governed by the states. But it's been a while and I'm not absolutely sure about that.

We shipped several cases back in 1968 after spending four and half years in Europe. We used a professional shipper, and it came through fine. We just had to write the check.

[David M. Bueker]

Google "International Wine Shipment" and lots of options pop up.

Thanks to all for responding. Once I figure it out, I will post what I learned.

Regards

Where in Europe? I know people who had multi=case shipping from England, France and Italy. Depending on where usually a local shipper has a connection with a US expediter. Tougher if not in a wine area I'd think (England is an exception since some many retailers and bonded warehouses there have handled so much wine shipping).

[Jenise]

Second, as best I recall, this is a federal issue, not governed by the states. But it's been a while and I'm not absolutely sure about that.

I am, and you're right. It's federal. Robert will need to hire a customs broker or a shipper who arranges customs brokerage to get the wine through the red tape.

I looked into North Carolina laws when moving from California about twenty years ago. At that time there was a rather tight restriction on how much alcohol (whiskey, wine, etc.) you could bring across the state line into NC. The number of bottles of wine I owned at the time was very small compared to now, but still over the limit. I gave away some bottles to friends and brought with me the allowed quantity.