How to bring them back to Canada?
Luckily, I had read an article on the National Capital Sommelier site called "Bringing it back". While slightly out of date, it has a lot of good info, including how to pack wines for the flight.
While we were visiting Navarro Vineyards, Caroline noticed that they shipped a lot of wine via their wine-club. She asked whether they sold shipping packs. Yes, was the answer, for $10 for a 12-pack. But they also had some used ones in excellent condition, and offered to give us one.
Great! A shipping pack is a two-piece styrofoam cube with wine bottle-shaped holes. It fits tightly inside a cardboard carton, which can be sealed and labelled for shipping. Filled with bottles, it weighs about 40 lbs. Here's a pic:
We counted it as one of our two "checked" pieces of luggage. The airline rep asked about the contents, and when I said "wine", made me sign a waiver indemnifying the airline in case of breakage. There's service for you! But, to be fair, they labelled it "fragile" and put it on the "oversized and fragile" conveyer belt.
The new Canadian customs form no longer asks how much alcohol (or tobacco) you're bringing in - there's just a checkbox if you're exceeding the pre-duty "exempted" amount - 2 bottles each, in our case. I checked yes, I'm over that amount.
Customs inquired about our trip, including food that we were bringing back ("Sea vegetables? You mean seaweed?") but didn't inquire about the alcohol. I picked up my box and left.
This is my typical experience with Customs. The important thing is to CLAIM what you're bringing in and expect to pay duty on it. Sometimes you get lucky and don't have to, sometimes you pay your obliged amount.
And the bottles? Nothing broken and everything is on the rack ready for my corkscrew.
Cheers,
Dave
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