Tuesday, Jul. 20, 2010

Coast-to-coast shipping

By Eric Degerman, Wine Press Northwest managing editor

Granted, these are not the best of times to be shipping wine from the Columbia Valley, but I really wanted to get two special bottles to a close friend of mine whose birthday I had missed.

I live in the Tri-Cities. He grew up in Tacoma but now lives in Manhattan on the Upper West Side and misses Northwest wines.

So I made arrangements with one of my favorite folks in the Northwest wine industry to send my friend this two-bottle shipper box.

This winery goes with FedEx. Cost for express overnight was going to be $120.

I chose the 2nd-Day Saver option. I figured the wine wouldn't get cooked if I went that route. The fee was about $36, and FedEx estimated that if I sent it out on Wednesday, it would arrive at my friend's flat by 7 p.m. EDT.

Sure enough, I received a thank you note via email from a happy recipient. The box arrived exactly when FedEx predicted it would.

My winery chum replied, "Amazing how things travel across this country, isn't it?"

Indeed.

And while my New York City slicker is worth the $36 shipping charge, during the spring and autum I'll return to using FedEx Ground.