So, how are you shipping your whisky purchases into the U.S.?
October 14th, 2008Okay, here’s an issue many of us have to deal with, and that includes me. So many whiskies are not imported to the U.S. You want to buy a whisky from a retailer somewhere overseas, you have a friend who wants to ship you whisky, or (in my case) a whisky company wants to send you review samples. But if you ship through the proper channels it gets flagged at the Newark Airport (or wherever) and they won’t send it to you unless you have an importer license, pay them lots of money, give up your first born child, etc.
I’m not advocating breaking any laws, but I know some of you have found ways to have your whisky shipped to you faster and with less red tape. You comments are anonymous, so does anyone want to offer some advice to those of us less enlightened?
(I’m not referring to shipping whisky with you when you are traveling but rather having whisky shipped to you from overseas.)
October 14th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Clearly there is a limit to what you can legally declare. If you ship it to yourself, you can mark it as “collectible whisky; no commercial value” and it will probably get to you. If you want to check it, and it’s under the limit, you had better pack it securely. Baggage handlers aren’t known for being gentle.
If you buy it at duty free, you can carry in as much as you want — again, keeping in mind whether you want to declare why your bag is rattling so much. A friend bought 6 bottles of Highland Park 21 at Heathrow and made it through Philadelphia with no trouble. I think US citizens can bring in 2 bottles with no need to pay a duty, but IANAL and you should check the Customs web site to be sure.
October 14th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Thanks Thomas. I was referring more to shipping whisky and you are NOT traveling with it. Any thoughts on that? I clarified my original posting to reflect this.
October 14th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
I’d break it up into small, well-packed boxes and ship each with a different carrier (DHL, UPS, FedEx, etc.) to get around import limits. If you ship with one carrier they’ll be obligated to enforce whatever legal restrictions there are. Yes, this is painful. A very good way to do it would be to have the retailer ship it for you. Again, mark it as “collectible whisky; no commercial value” and it *should* get through. No guarantees!
Another option I’ve been dreaming of would be to set up an “import collective” where a group of people set themselves up as an importer. I’d love to know what this would cost. You could charge people to be members and act as a legal recipient and keep it all above-board, and relay shipments to their final destination. Set up shop in a state where there are no inter-state shipping restrictions and you should be good to go. Would there be sufficient interest for such a company to exist?
October 14th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I have been sent whisky under various guises. “Yeast samples,” “Water samples”, with “No commercial Value” noted.
I think the most creative one was from a French company who sent a whisky sample to: Father John Hansell, Church of the Malt Advocate, and the liquid was identified on the box and shipping paper as “Holy Water”. I got it. I still chuckle today about it.
October 15th, 2008 at 3:20 am
Well, i can’t give you any advice here, but we in europe have the opposite problem when we would like to buy bourbon or even single malt from the U.S. the prices are sometime much better in the U.S. but we can’t order it to europe.
Since you are in europe from time to time, maybe you could be our courier?
October 15th, 2008 at 8:12 am
I have purchased quite a bit of whisky from the UK without any problems. They have shipped it Royal Air Mail as a collectible with either no declared value or a modest value of generally $300 or less. I’ve also shipped whisky from the US to a friend of mine in the UK via the Post Office without any problems. I’ve generally tried to limit my purchses to 2 or 3 bottlers at a time. I have also bought whisky from Germany and Australia , but once again, only in small quantities.
October 15th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Tony: I, too, have had a high success rate with Royal Mail for those shipping samples to me from overseas. My local mailman hand delivers them to me, no questions asked.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:41 am
I agree with John - I’ve had great success with the Royal Mail and their Parcelforce division. Deliveries are no problem, and have arrived here on the west coast from the UK in as little as 4 days.
October 16th, 2008 at 7:17 am
This is great. I feel like we’re getting somewhere here. Royal Mail seems to be working consistently for everyone. Has anyone had problems with Royal Mail?
I think that every time someone ships me something via Airborne, it gets snagged by Customs (And for some reason the whisky companies seem to like Airborne.)
October 16th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Parcelforce complete with tracking often comes (east coast) in 3 days + for
3 packs Royal Mile charges less than TWE (The Whisky Exchange).
October 19th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Harvey, they were talking about U.K. Royal Mail, not Royal Mile.
having said that, on numerous occasions i’ve ordered anywhere from one bottle to twelve from Royal Mile Whiskies, The Whisky Exchange and Whisky Online. all shipments have come through just fine. i just placed an order last week with Single Malts Direct; i’m hoping that comes through as well. you pay a bit more for shipping from The Whisky Exchange and a few other merchants because they guarantee the shipping. Royal Mile Whiskies and others ship “at buyer’s risk.” you get your Parcelforce tracking number and hope for the best. as noted above, the customs declarations have all come through as “collector’s malt: no commercial value”, and all have made their way through. so, i agree that seems to be the most promising route.
October 20th, 2008 at 4:29 am
Rich, your confusion is understandable BUT (strickly construed) th’logic of my comment was= 1. Parcelforce (which is Royal Mail) does very well for us + 2. Royal Mile (which is Royal Mile) charges less for shipping 3 packs
across th’Atlantic Ocean than TWE, which, as th’MA blog was nice enough to translate for those who don’t know, is The Whisky Exchange. however,
IF you’re going to order 12 or more bottles, th’price differential diminishes
enough that other considerations (a larger selection + th’guarantee) might
help you to choose TWE.
October 24th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
The last time I tried to have a bottle of whisky sent from Scotland through the mail, all I got was an empty box with a form letter inside that said shipping alcohol through the US Mail is illegal and subject to a $10,000 fine. Unfortunately all mail that originates in the Royal Mail ends up in the US Mail once it gets into this country. I had many bottles shipped to me this way before this that came through, but, once they confiscated one bottle I decided this wasn’t the way to go.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Bill, that’s a bummer! That’s never happened to me. I wonder what became of the bottle?
October 24th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
John, supposedly anything confiscated by customs is supposed to be destroyed, but you never know. What is interesting is that it is legal for companies like UPS and Fed-Ex to ship alcohol in the US, but I’ve been told that they won’t accept packages containing alcohol in Scotland for shipment to the US.
December 4th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
So, the conclusion seems to be - buyer beware? The reason I’m utterly upset by this today is the exchange rate. With now below 1.5 to 1, not only can you buy things abroad you can’t get here, but it is incredibly cheaper even including the shipping. For example, Benriach Authenticus, over 150 at retail here, about 85 bucks at royal mile whiskies. Their FAQ says they wont ship to the US, but now i hear they do - which is it?
December 4th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Michael,
Most companies won’t ship, but some do. I don’t know how they get it past Customs and all, but that’s something you would have to work out with the retailer directly. I never bought something and had it shipped to me from overseas. Realize also that I imagine there are shipping sharges involved too!
Why don’t you email Harvey Fry? He seems to have no problems getting whisky shipped. Click on his name above to reach him.