We seem to have built up quite a wine collection and apart from binge drinking over the next few months before we leave the UK for Alberta we wanted to ship it over. I understand from our Packers Robinsons they will not ship it - but wondered if anybody knew of any specialists that would.

Thanks

J

This may be a long shot. When we moved to Canada in 2000, our stuff was packed and moved by Arrowpak International (www.arrowpak.co.uk). That company was (still is?) used by the Canadian government to relocate its people, including the High Commission staff returning from the UK to Canada. We brought lots of wine. Arrowpak had no problem with that.

Bear in mind that you will have to pay import duty on it when it's customs cleared in Canada. Keep good records of what you've got.

use it for your leaving party/ies?????

We were in a similar position when we shipped our effects last February. Despite running the stocks down for over 6 months we still had a lot of unopened bottles of spirits and wine. When we first mentioned this to the shipper (Pickfords) they were not keen for us to ship it. We brought 3 bottles of spirits across each time for a few trips and decided to ship the rest.

When we insisted, on the basis that paying the duty would be cheaper than replacing, they packed the bottles and left them at the rear of the container. This was in case customs wanted to inspect them. We submitted a list of the type of alcohol, bottle sizes etc to the shipper.

When we arrived in Toronto we found the local part of Pickfords much more helpful than the UK side. They said we needed to apply for an import permit and they arranged this on our behalf within 24 hours. The cost for this permit is based on the quantity you import:

CAD $ 1.00 per 700-750ml bottle of still table wine
CAD $ 3.00 per 700-750ml bottle of sparkling wine
CAD $ 2.00 per 700-750ml bottle of spirit

When you visit customs to clear your effects you then pay duty. They have standard values this is based on not the price you paid. We shipped just over 10 ltrs of spirits, 13 ltrs of still wine and 2 bottles of champagne and the duty/GST etc came to CAD $72.

None of this delayed the shipment and there was no extra work for us as we had to visit customs anyway and paying the duty added about 5 mins to the visit. If you want more details pm me as I still have the paperwork that we received.

Cheers!!

hope you don't mind but I've sent you a PM. The one thing removers have said to me is not to ship during Oct - Feb, something about it freezing, but other people have told me theirs was okay.

thanks

Irene

It's just more crap and clutter - when you actually go through the process you'll wonder why you actually bothered, and you'll need to be focused and have more important things to deal with, like getting your AB life set up.

Drink it, give it away to friends, coworkers, bums, whatever

Rich.

Thank you so much for your response - as you mention it will be cheaper for us to pay duty than replace and even if we try and drink it - it would mean about 3 bottles a day !!
I will try again to negotiate with Robinsons this Friday when they are coming round and it would be great then to get some more details from you.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond - if you are ever in Canmore let me know and you we can share a bottle !

Jane