From state liquor laws to specialty packaging, it can be difficult to ship alcohol—especially when it’s a high-end product. Whether you’re a retailer, a distributor, or just someone with sophisticated taste, it’s important to find the right solution for high-end wine shipping.
At Spirited Shipper, we have over 30 years of experience safely transporting wine and other high-end spirits. Our patented boxes are made with extra strong certified corrugated cardboard, ensuring every shipment is secure.
The Challenges of Shipping High-End Spirits
Careful packaging isn’t the only obstacle when it comes to shipping expensive glass bottles of highly-regulated liquids. A lot can happen between point A and point B, and you should be prepared for all of it when you ship alcohol.
Fragility of Bottles
High-end wine and liquor almost always come in glass bottles. Glass helps preserve the quality of these expensive spirits for longer, but it’s also very fragile by nature. Bottles with prominent corners, narrow necks, or thinner glass are extra prone to breakage, even when they’re not being shipped across state lines. This is why it’s so important to make sure bottles are safe and secure when you ship alcohol. There’s nothing worse than receiving a $10,000 box of wet, broken glass.
Temperature Sensitivity
Another challenge with shipping expensive liquor is temperature fluctuation. When you’re dealing with high-end wine shipping in the middle of summer, for example, taste and quality can be easily impacted if you don’t account for the heat during transportation. Freezing temperatures can also damage the quality of wine and crack bottles. If extreme weather is in the forecast, you must protect bottles from the elements with measures like thermal sleeves, refrigerated shipping, and filler materials.
Risk of Leakage
Sometimes, high-end spirits are sealed with delicate corks, caps, or wax that can be jostled loose during shipments. Drastic changes in air pressure, flimsy packaging, or rough cargo conditions threaten wine shipping. Ideally, with the right packaging, even the most precarious bottles will stay safe and unharmed during transportation. Sturdy cardboard inserts can keep items in place and prevent leakage.
Maintaining Presentation
It’s also important to maintain a high-end presentation when shipping top-shelf liquor. No one wants to pay $500 for a bottle of Dom Perignon Rose just for it to show up in an unmarked brown box. You can accomplish both safe transportation and high-end presentation with the right materials. Branded boxes, precision filler materials, and inserts can all add to the elevated feel of the product. Spirited Shipper offers silk screen printing and customized packaging to ensure your bottles arrive in style.
Regulatory Restrictions
High-end wine shipping (and other high-end alcohol) also requires strict adherence to state regulations, customs, duties, and shipping specifications. If you miss a detail, your shipment could end up in limbo or get sent back to you for correction. This can be tedious and expensive to deal with, so it’s important that your shipping partner is aware of local regulations.
Why High-End Spirit Collectors Trust Spirited Shipper
When it comes to high-end spirits, you need a shipping partner you can trust. For 30+ years, collectors and distributors have trusted Spirited Shipper to provide only the best materials for wine shipping, custom high-end liquor shipping, and more. Our corrugated cardboard boxes are extra strong ECT48- and ECT44-rated, making them ideal for glass bottle transportation.
Conclusion
Don’t leave your high-end wine shipping up to chance. When expensive taste is on the line, always work with a trusted provider like Spirited Shipper. Contact us to learn more about high end wine shipping with Spirited Shipper’s premium boxes today.