Can I Mail Wine As A Gift?

Wine is a fun, classy and easy gift to send to family and friends as a holiday gift, birthday gift or other special occasion. Unfortunately, it is illegal in the US for non-licensed individuals to ship wine or other alcohol by any means (UPS, Fedex, or the mail). So how can you ship wine as a gift?

Find A Company To Ship It For You

The only way to ship wine in the US is with a licensed producer or retailer. Luckily, there are plenty of licensed wineries and retailers who you can purchase through, and they will ship the wine on your behalf. We are one of those, and offer a range of wines, wine gift baskets and holiday wine gift baskets that we can ship for you just about anywhere in the USA.

That being said, if you have a favorite winery or local winery that you would like to support, you can reach out to them and see if they are able to ship across state lines. Unfortunately, due to many complex and outdated alcohol shipping restrictions leftover from the days of Prohibition, most wineries cannot ship out of state or across state lines, as it is too expensive, complicated and laborious for most small wineries to afford to get licensed appropriately. Luckily, in spite of being small, we here at Voluptuary & Lucid Wines have a good friend who is an alcohol compliance lawyer, so we have been able to get licensed in just about every state in the US!

Some wine retailers and e-commerce sites are able to ship wine for you, but retailers also face severe restrictions in where they can ship. Our favorite retailer is Reciprocity Wines, who works with small natural producers and is a great small company to support. Most of the major wine ecommerce sites, like Wine.com, wineaccess.com, and others can ship to some, but not all states. One issue you run into when ordering from these larger sites is that their selection is so large that it is hard to know if you are getting a truly good bottle made by a serious winemaker, or just a generic mass-produced wine.

Choose The Right Wine

Wine can be a very intimidating subject, and people often struggle to choose what wine to buy. With over 1000 common varieties of wine and over 10,000 producers in California alone, no wonder it’s confusing! And then to account for taste, and perhaps you don’t know what kind of wine your friend or family member likes. Well, we’re here to help!

The first step is, to ask your friend what kind of wine they like. Ideally, to not give away that you’re getting them wine, but you know they like wine, you might ask them what wine they would suggest you buy for dinner or a special occasion. If they are a wine person, they will probably end up rambling about wine for awhile and accidentally reveal the type of wine they like!

If you don’t want to ask, then another alternative is to play it safe. Most people like red wine blends such as our L.08 “Wanderlust” red blend, because they are smooth and balanced, so they are generally crowd-pleasers. If you know that they are a more serious connoisseur, then you might want to buy them a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon such as our L.07 “Delirium” as Cabernets tend to be loved by the more serious drinkers. Lastly, if they are a more casual wine drinker, a white or rose wine such as our L.02 “Urban Flora” rose is a great option.

If you still aren’t sure, the safest, easiest, simplest way to be certain they’ll like to wine you get them is to get them a variety pack of wines or a gift basket! You can do this by simply ordering a few bottles, or you can purchase a gift basket. These are excellent gifts and well received. The only downside of these options is, they can sometimes get a bit expensive. For a cheaper option that still delivers lots of variety, you can purchase a mixed pack of mini wine bottles, such as our wine tasting packs.

Make Sure The Wine Gets There Safely And On Time

Nothing is worse then getting a package you are excited to receive, and finding that it is broken, or receiving it after when you needed it. That’s why timely and safe arrival of your wine is so critical, especially for gifting.

Professional wine shipping companies, wineries and retailers should package their wine in packaging that is specifically designed to protect wine during shipping. However there is quite a learning curve for many smaller wineries and newer shippers, and breakage is common with many suppliers. Sometimes you would think that delivery drivers are punting the packages instead of delivering them!

Here at Voluptuary & Lucid Wines, we are an e-commerce centered winery, and our years of experience shipping wine has allowed us to perfect the process. Our breakage and late delivery rates are approaching zero, and are industry-leading. Getting your package there on time and in perfect condition is critical to us, and we will make it so.

As if that all weren’t enough to consider, weather can be a major issue. If a shipper tries to ship wine when it’s too cold: the wine will freeze and bottle explode. Try to ship wine when it’s too hot, and the wine will expand through thermal expansion, push out the cork, and spill wine everywhere! Even if the wine survives these conditions, it will be damaged in taste. Experienced shippers such as ourselves handle this for you, watching nation-wide weather patterns and shipping rapidly on the appropriate days to avoid any issues, and to ensure that the wine arrives in perfect condition.

If you want to ship wine, the take home message is that it’s complicated, but definitely possible with the right partner! Here at Voluptuary & Lucid Wine we are glad to offer an easy way to send wine just about anywhere in the US. Whether you would like to send a bottle of wine, a wine gift basket, or a wine & food pairing, we have you covered. Whether it is for a birthday, anniversary, wedding gift, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, congratulations, thank you gift, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or any other holiday wine gift occasion, we have you covered!