12/21/05 E-mail - Traveling with wine

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. On today's program, we will continue answering questions from the holiday email. A listener wrote to ask how I would recommend taking a few bottles of wine when they travel this season. The question of how to travel with or transport wine on your journeys is a big one. Since the listener did not specify how far he was traveling, I will assume that he is flying somewhere. So my first question is what is so great about the wine that you need to schlep it all of the way to who knows where? Is it something that you cannot buy when you arrive at your destination? Next question - what else are you carrying and how much more can you handle? I have never had any problems with taking wine on a trip, just don't wrap it as a gift - you may be asked to unwrap it. You can purchase wine cases on the internet or at you local wine merchants. The best wine bags are the padded wine bags that have a stiff bottom. There is a new bag that is made from a foamlike fabric that feels to me like a divers wet suit. That would be the most compact. All of these wine bags are made to hold one to three bottles  they fit into the overhead bins and any more wine than that I recommend that you ship. Yes - get a Styrofoam wine shipper and send it on ahead. FEDEX and UPS will ship them to any state that they legally can and you can eliminate the schlepping. That my friends is how I would have a Happy Holiday traveling experience and still have my wine and drink it too. Remember to send your wine questions to Linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.