Californian Wineries

April 9, 2008 4:11 AM

As a gift, I'd like to be able to order Californian wine from a Napa or Santa Barbara winery (or anywhere) and have it mailed to a family member in the United Kingdom. (I live in Los Angeles)

I know a lot of wineries do mail deliveries, but are international deliveries possible? Can anyone recommend a winery for this kind of thing. THANKS!

posted by rocco to food & drink (4 comments total)

International shipping will be either: a) affordable by sea freight but will take 3 months; or b) cost an arm and a leg but get there reasonably quickly by plane.

You don’t need shipping from a US winery, you need a British wine merchant to do a local delivery. Can I suggest Oddbins, Majestic Wine Warehouse or Lea & Sandeman? All good, all very reputable.
posted by dmt at 4:40 AM on April 9, 2008

dmt has told you exactly what I would have recommended.
posted by dowcrag at 5:49 AM on April 9, 2008

As anecdotal evidence that dmt has the right idea:

When I was living in California, I had visited the UK, where an old friend (who was on the Oxford Wine-Tasting Team at the time (yes, that's a real thing; they had beat Cambridge that year)) took my friend and me out to dinner. I decided to send her a nice bottle of California wine before discovering that the requirements for international shipping of alcoholic products seemed, umm, rather burdensome.

Eventually, I sent her a thank-you (and some other gift, I suppose) and drank the wine.
posted by JMOZ at 6:09 AM on April 9, 2008

Find a UK distributor and have it shipped directly to the UK address.

eg. http://www.winedirect.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=5306

Their 'find a wine' search is quite detailed and extensive.
posted by missmagenta at 6:44 AM on April 9, 2008