Six Tips for Moving Your Wine Bottles Carefully
When you're moving to a new home, you have to take special precautions with expensive or fragile items, and if you have a lot of wine, it falls into both of those categories. Luckily, there are a variety of ways you can ensure that your wine collection gets to your new home safely. Here are some tips to keep in mind.
1. Consider climate-controlled shipping or moving services
If you have chilled white wine or red wine kept in a cellar, you want to ensure that you move the items at the right temperature. If you are moving in the middle of summer, the hot temperatures may threaten to spoil the wine, and extra-cold winter temperatures can also pose problems.
To protect your wine, talk with a moving company about climate-controlled shipping options. If the moving company you select doesn't offer this service, you may want to look into climate-controlled shipping options. Finally, if you have to put your stuff into storage between homes, make sure that the storage is climate controlled and that the temperatures and humidity levels are right for your wines.
2. Invest in wine boxes
To cradle your fragile wine bottles during the move, consider looking into special packaging. If your moving company doesn't sell boxes just for wine, you may want to talk with a shipping company, a wine supplier, or even a liquor store in your area. These companies should be able to sell you packaging that is designed for wine bottles. Typically, this involves sturdy corrugated cardboard that can hold the weight of liquid-filled glass bottles combined with styrofoam for temperature maintenance and protection from breakage.
3. Cushion wine bottles
If you can't find special packaging, you can pack wine bottles in a regular moving box. Use a quality box rather than a used one—this reduces the risk of the box breaking or bursting in transit. Wrap each bottle separately. You can buy long rolls of corrugated paper or bubble wrap that can work perfectly.
4. Pack wine on its side
As you know, wine should always be stored on its side. This keeps the cork moist and helps to prevent the wine from spoiling. For a short move, bottles can survive being moved while upright, but if possible and especially for long-distance moves, you want the wine on its side.
To ensure the wine stays on its side, label the boxes "this side up" or with a similar phrase so that movers know how to keep the boxes oriented. You may also want to talk with your movers about your wine collection to ensure they know to be extra careful.
5. Book insurance
If you have an extensive, expensive wine collection, you may want to book some extra insurance for it. In many cases, moving companies offer coverage for breakage that happens while their employees are handling your items or while the items are in their truck. However, you may want to speak with your movers about the insurance policy and exactly how it works.
Additionally, you may want to make sure that your wine collection is covered by your renter's or homeowner's insurance. Talk to your agent about how your policy covers you during a move; in some cases, the policy covers your items while you are between homes, but in other cases, you may need to purchase additional coverage. Also, check your deductible. If it is too high, you may be stuck paying out of pocket if anything happens.
6. Check the laws
In most cases, you can easily move wine to a new home. However, in some cases, there may be laws that prohibit the movement of wine. For example, Pennsylvania doesn't allow people to bring alcohol bought in other areas into the state. You may want to check into the laws in your area to ensure that there won't be any issues.
The best way to move your wine collection carefully may be to turn it over to the pros. Contact a moving company today to talk about their experience moving wine bottles, and let their expertise get your cabs, sauvs, and pinots to your new home safely.
Visit sites such as http://www.movewithunited.com to find moving companies that can help you in your area.