Flying with Wine – TSA Alcohol Rules and Regulations

The Flight Was Great But Did the Wine Get There?

As we approach the beginning of the holiday travel season, the perennial question resurfaces: I will be traveling, but will my wine get there? The answer is unequivocally: MAYBE.

The fact is that today with the correct preparation, there should be no difficulty traveling with wine. First and foremost you should never arrive at the airport without a printed copy of the TSA rules on flying with alcohol specifically the rules are as follows:

“Carrying Alcohol In Your Checked Baggage: Please note, you can’t take alcoholic beverages with more than 70 percent alcohol content (140 proof), including 95 percent grain alcohol and 150 proof rum, in your checked luggage.

“You may take up to five liters of alcohol with alcohol content between 24 percent and 70 percent per person as checked luggage if it’s packaged in a sealable bottle or flask. Alcoholic beverages with less than 24 percent alcohol content are not subject to hazardous materials regulations”

In other words, since wine has less than a 24% alcohol content it is not subject to hazardous materials regulations and you are therefore not limited to checking only 5 liters. That being said many people have complained that the TSA representatives were not aware of the regulations and that is why you must carry a copy of the regulations with you.

The other hurdle that you must jump through is the individual airline rules which differ from airline to airline. For your convenience we are listing the websites for some of the more popular airlines:

American Airlines
Continental Airlines
Delta Airlines
Southwest Airlines
United Airlines

United Airlines for example, says it has no limit on the quantity of wine but the wine must be shipped in a “Styrofoam-type” insert. Continental Airlines also states that it has no limit on shipping wine, it says: “All alcoholic beverages must be packed to prevent breakage. Continental shall not be liable for breakage or spillage of alcoholic beverages. Normal checked baggage allowance limits, excess fees and carry-on limits apply”. It would be prudent not to rely on the knowledge of the baggage handlers or the ticketing personnel when shipping your wine. Take the time to print out the specific requirements for shipping wine from the website of the airline of your choice. Clearly carrying these rules and regulations is not foolproof, but it is a necessary precaution that has helped other travelers in the past to facilitate having their wine arrive safely at their destination.

If you are purchasing your wine directly from a vineyard, many are equipped to package your wines for you in Styrofoam containers to accommodate the airline rules which incidentally are also the recommended rules for Fed Ex and UPS. Fed Ex does not allow you, a consumer, to ship wine. You must be a licensed wholesaler, dealer, etc.
Wishing you and your wine safe travels during the holiday season and throughout the year!

Marijuana Growers in Washington State Vineyards

“You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time……………” The Story of Marijuana Growers in Washington State Vineyards

As the saying goes “you can fool some of the people some of the time… but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time,” so goes marijuana growers in Washington State. The vineyards of the Yakima Valley in Washington State, which comprise 31,000 acres approximately 150 miles southeast of Seattle, have become the focus of law enforcement officers due to an unusually heavy use of water. It seems that marijuana plants require significantly greater amounts of water than vineyards and need daily irrigation according to Washington State Patrol Sgt. Richard A. Beghtol and Supervisor of Law Enforcement against Drugs. In addition to an increase use of water at certain vineyards, the other telltale signs of marijuana growing have been either untended vineyards or grapes being removed from the vines before they are ripe. The search for illegal marijuana has now expanded from National forests and parklands to vineyards in the Pacific Northwest. With greater vigilance on the Mexican and Canadian borders, it is making it increasingly difficult to ship marijuana into the United States so dealers are setting up US operations to expand their business.

A drug busts is not a new phenomena in Washington. In 2004, 60,000 plants were confiscated from an Indian Reservation in the Yakima Valley valued at more than $35 million and traced to organized crime in Mexico. In 2006, over 140,000 plants were seized in Washington. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency agent in charge, Rene Rivera, in 2007 the number of marijuana plants almost doubled to 296,000 as a result of both greater law enforcement efforts as well as greater drug activity. By springtime, 2008, 200,000 marijuana plants had already been confiscated in the Yakima Valley valued at over $165 million with a prediction of over 500,000 being confiscated for the entire year, half coming from vineyards according to Sgt. Beghtol.

The problem facing law enforcement officials is twofold: first that farm workers are being paid to illegally plant and tend marijuana crops in established vineyards unbeknownst to the vineyard owners and also large amounts of the drug trafficking money is being reinvested in purchasing vineyards to be used for marijuana crops. Law enforcement officials believe that Mexican cartels are reaching networks of Hispanic immigrant workers who already pick fruits in the Yakima Valley and are paying them to plant and cultivate marijuana. The difficulty in tracking down the landowners is their use of fictitious names to conceal their identities. On the other hand, it has not been difficult to find and arrest the workers. In the first half of 2008, 13 vineyards were raided and 33 suspects were arrested. According to Vicky Scharlau, Executive Director of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers, in predicting a decline in vineyard purchases by marijuana growers she said: “I suspect after you’ve had numerous busts, somebody’s future plan for growing pot in vineyards is going to be thwarted.”