Ok, so I finally got around to calling the Missouri Alcohol and Tobacco Control. Why am I calling them you ask?? To find out about bringing wine we can't get here back with us. You know, those excellent small production wines that don't make it out of France muchless here, that are just too good of a deal to pass up? (the ones that are the reason we're going :)
My adventure started when a wine shop owner told me I couldn't bring anything more than 2 bottles back and I would be limited to what was already registered here. Uh, come on, really?? So I look on the main ATF website, they say you're limited by your state, there wasn't anything I could find on the state website, so I finally just called and left a message. I got a call back, about 3 hours later (I know, I was suprised too that a GOVERNMENT employee called me back that fast!) letting me know that according to MO Statute 311.580, each person can bring back 5 gallons. (That's a little over 25 750ml bottles) No taxes, no forms, nothing to fill out. (well, other than a customs declaration form, I assume)
So, I still have no idea how we're getting it back, but at least I know how much we CAN bring back.
4 comments:
Hooray! Our lenient alcohol policies are one of the best things about living in MO.
I thought how much you can bring back depends not on your final destination stateside, but on the laws of the port-of-entry state? So if you are landing first in Newark (say from Paris), that it would be NJ's law, not Missouri's that applies to you, since its customs agents in NJ inspecting your bags. . . ?
That might be....however, it doesn't matter for us because we aren't planning on navigating 4 cases + our luggage through airports so we would have to find a way to get it shipped back. (The airlines are charging so much for excess luggage that even if we wanted to a lot back with us, it would probably be just as much to ship it anyway.)
For us, we're entering the country through Chicago, so we're subject to IL laws for the few "extra special" bottles we might decide to fly with us, or should the whole shipping thing not work out. http://www.state.il.us/lcc/docs/import.pdf says we are allowed up to one gallon per person, which is 5 bottles each.
I don't know how many bottles we would plan on packing in our bags, probably less than 5, but thanks for reminding me to look up IL's laws for that reason!!
Bringing wine we can't get here back with us. Those excellent small production wines. I am looking for any specialty drinks from France to bring back with us. I will bring back wines for my family but some of my family does not drink so I also need a wine alternative.
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