Bottled alcoholic beverages are, by nature, fragile items. The alcohol itself is fluid, which already presents some issues, but generally, especially with wine, the bottles themselves are made of glass and, therefore, need to be carefully handled as well. All of this can make shipping wine in the winter more challenging than other products, but it can be done successfully and efficiently, provided three factors are kept in mind.
State Regulations
First, and possibly most important, is knowing what state regulations you need to comply with. Shipping wine in winter is compounded by the fact that all states in the USA have created their own laws regarding how easy or difficult it is to ship alcohol. There are big differences between shipping wine within your own state, shipping it to another state entirely, or even shipping it internationally to another country.
So, before anything else, the first hurdle in shipping wine is knowing about shipping regulations as they pertain to the state, state, or country you are shipping to. Without this knowledge, your wine may never arrive at its destination due to violating some shipping regulations.
Physical Protection
The next most immediate concern is the proper physical packaging for the wine itself. If you are shipping a glass bottle, you already know that, as with other glassware, the product must be protected from severe shock and impact. This is not just to protect the bottle itself but, more importantly, to prevent the wine from leaking out of a broken bottle and having a product arrive that is empty and, therefore, unusable for sale or consumption.
Temperature
Finally, when shipping wine in winter, one of the biggest concerns for maintaining quality is maintaining temperature. Although it’s technically possible for wine to freeze, then thaw, and still be safe to consume, this has a serious impact on the flavor and quality of the product. For wine to be in a viable state, as with medical or pharmaceutical materials, it has an optimal temperature to maintain its flavor. Getting too far below or above this temperature impacts that flavor.
This is why it’s critical to provide temperature protection in addition to physical protection. An expensive solution is to ship wine in an environmentally controlled vehicle, such as reefer units for ships or trucks. A more cost-effective solution is temperature-protective packaging.
If you’re shipping temperature-sensitive products and want to know the best way to get those products to their destination safely, we can help. Contact us to explain your shipping needs and obtain a quote.
