[Kate]

We have a small wine cellar and will probably have about 4-6 cases that we would want to ship with our container. I have checked with customs and as long as we can show it's a collection aquired over time we don't have to pay customs tax. However, just wondering if it will survive the journey in the containcer due to temperature changes. Anyone have any experiences on this?

Thanks,
Kate

[GeorgeM]

I did, and wouldn't really recommend it.

We had about four cases of mostly good second string bordeaux reds from good chateaux in Paulliac, St Estephe, Moulis, St Emillion, Margaux etc which we had bought early and kept for several years.

When we knew we were trying to come to NZ we stopped buying and drank up most of our cellar, but some bottles either weren't ready or we just didn't get round to them. These we shipped over.

Some of the them were just about ok on arrival, but others had obviously suffered from the voyage. (The Malts we shipped were fine, though!)

My advice would be to drink up before you come if you can, and if not to seriously consider donating the remainder to friends and rellies who are into a decent tipple.

Wine in NZ was a relevation to me - I had long been acquainted with Marlborough and Hawkes Bay Sauv Blanc, but wasn't prepared for the wealth of high quality stuff available here. I didn't believe that such good Pinot Noir could be grown in Central within sight of the main ski fields!

With Aussie shiraz and NZ just about anything else there's no shortage of decent tipples over here. And if you buy wisely (when the outlets have their sales on) and store you can build up a cellar quite quickly and at a good price.

French wine over here always seems overpriced per quality compared to the local NZ and Oz stuff, and when I've tried stuff that friends have bought locally (often at quite a price) it has been awful compared to what you would have got for the same price from Otago or Marlborough etc. Perhaps it had come over on the same boat as my stuff....

[Kate]

Thanks for the information...that confirms what we were concerned about. We are planning for lots of farewell dinners with our reamaining wine...so it sounds like we'll have to pick up the pace.

Also, we love New Zealand and Oz wines so have no fear of what's available in New Zealand.

Thanks,
Kate

[Simon & Emily]

Drinking all that wine before you leave - I bet that's one job that you are really dreading ... :laugh :laugh :laugh

Emily

[leslie]

i learned the hard way after leaving a number of bottles in window that was cold when left several days prev. area had a burst of hot sunny weather and i came back to uni residence to find self the owner of a number of bottles of v nice vinegar.

suggest dont buy wine from stores that have large window displays because someone will be buying those bottles...

[foolsgold99]

We drank our wine collection over Christmas, decided that shipping was going to be too dodgy

[ToadFish]

Phew. We started drinking our wine with great passion last night at the first of several leaving parties. In fact we are drinking our cellar over the next two weeks almost without pause now I come to think of it.

Would have hated to read here that it was worth the effort of shipping on top of the hangover!