Advice: Wine to the UK

You are allowed to bring the following into the UK from outside the EU without paying duty and/or tax: 1 litre of spirits or strong liqueurs over 22% volume. Or. 2 litres of fortified wine (such as port or sherry), sparkling wine or any other alcoholic drink that is less than 22% volume.

i.e., same as Portugal, just 2.66 bottles of 750ml
 
For the EU it is actually 4 liters of non-sparkling wine plus either 1 liter of spirits 22% (person has to be 17 or older)

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ec.europa.eu

from what I understand the duty for amounts above the limit is usually pretty low, as in less than 2 Euro a bottle
 
Have customs people become bloodhounds these days? I think the last time I flew to Europe and back I was like "Oh yeah, I have some wine in my carry-on," and they looked at me like I told them I had an itchy rash on my elbow. Like, complete disinterest, though I was hauling an entire case, carefully packed.

Goddamnit, I just used "disinterest" wrong again, didn't I?

Fuck. That one always trips me up.

Uninterest? Non-interest?
 
I've been questioned, once flying into Paris last year and once into Porto this year, but only because we had several suitcases. And there was no problem when I said that I had more than the limit, but most of the wine was produced in EU countries anyway (though I'm not sure this matters). So, no, not bloodhounds.

When was your last flight? Wine in carry-ons has been forbidden for at least ten years, unless it's the disinteresting stuff bought in duty free shops.
 
Chris: Your use of 'disinterest' is correct.

Oswaldo: You are a wag.

French customs: When I had too many boxes of wine, they helped me tape two of the smaller ones together so it would count as only one carton. That was the only counting they did. ETA: To be checked. No liquids in carry-on for many moons now.
 
I've brought plenty of wine and out of Europe the last several years. never had a problem. i always declare it and always get the same look of disinterest noted by chris.
 
originally posted by georg lauer:
originally posted by georg lauer:
plus either 1 liter of spirits 22%
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before the pedants come out in force, it is obviously 1 liter with alcohol >22%, or 2 liters lower than 22%
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How much can you bring if it's exactly 22%?

Anything you can pedant I can pedant better....
 
originally posted by Bill Lundstrom:
I've brought plenty of wine and out of Europe the last several years. never had a problem. i always declare it and always get the same look of disinterest noted by chris.
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Same here. In '01 I carried back 15 bottles, dutifully declaring them all. Customs never batted any eyelash. I've been told that they're only interested in people schlepping goods for sale, not the occasional wine geek toting home all that he/she can carry.

Mark Lipton
 
Jeff is, alas, right about disinterest now. But there is no law against using it in its original sense of being neutral about an issue rather than indifferent. Chris could have said the customs person was completely indifferent or showed a complete lack of interest and been perfectly correct, while reserving disinterest for the mythical state of Supreme Court Justices espoused by John Roberts.

A Slate article about this tells me that nonplussed now means unfazed instead of perplexed, though. I have never heard this and I do not and will not stand for it, even momentarily.
 
originally posted by Jonathan Loesberg:

A Slate article about this tells me that nonplussed now means unfazed instead of perplexed, though. I have never heard this and I do not and will not stand for it, even momentarily.
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But will you sit for it?

Mark Lipton
 
I declare, if there is one thing that will make a man proud, it is having his thread descend into etymological tomfoolery.

Some of the bottles will be Black Agnes, our black currant mead, named for Agnes Randolph. Should we get inspected in Edinburgh, it will be amusing to see if the agent knows her vaunted role in Scottish history.
 
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