No Coffee, Tea or Wine in Your Carry-On

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From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

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And I'm Melissa Block.

Those new security restrictions that say air travelers can't carry on most liquids are causing some problems for California's wine industry. California wineries sell lots of wine to tourists who want to take it home with them. Now they can't put it in their carry-on bags to shove into the overhead compartment and shipping wine out of state by mail or private carrier is still difficult because of conflicting laws.

As NPR's John McChesney reports, wine lovers are getting frustrated and wine makers are getting nervous.

JOHN MCCHESNEY reporting:

It's high season right now in California's famed Napa Valley. Highway 29 is packed with bumper to bumper traffic. And the tasting rooms are full of sniffers and sippers.

Unidentified Man: This one is the Moscato. It's a sweet wine. I don't recommend it for the morning ladies, but -

Ms. HEATHER BOSWELL(ph) (Touring Napa Valley): This wine for everyday use. I wish I had life where I could start with wine for breakfast everyday.

MCCHESNEY: Heather Boswell flew up from Santa Monica and is sampling Muscat at San Supery, a midsize winery near Rutherford. She's the kind of tourist the industry loves to see.

Ms. BOSWELL: I usually bring home two of the six bottle carriers, one for each hand. As much as I can carry.

MCCHESNEY: But not this time, she says. She says she doesn't think loading a few bottles in her check on luggage is a good idea.

Ms. BOSWELL: If I checked my wine, I think I'd come home with either several drunk TSA agents and no wine or a duffle bag full of broken glass and very wet clothes. I don't trust them at all.

MCCHESNEY: Lesley Russell, San Supery's head of direct sales, interrupts. She says St. Supery is trying to make direct sales more attractive in the face of the new carry-on restrictions by offering a case discount on shipping.

MS. LESLEY RUSSELL (San Supery Winery): And then we also are offering this month, - for as long as we need to - if people buy $250 worth of wine, we'll give them complimentary shipping on that purchase.

MCCHESNEY: So there you go, $250.

Ms. BOSWELL: There I go. As if I needed more excuses to spend money.

MCCHESNEY: What most wineries here are doing is offering customers Styrofoam-lined boxes, which can be checked in as baggage at the airport. That's what Beringer's Winery in St. Helena is doing. But Beringer's Rebecca Fine says some airlines won't even allow this kind of wine baggage.

Ms. REBECCA FINE (Beringer Winery): Maybe when you're on your way out, check in at the airline and see if it's allowed and then you'll know whether you can do it or not. There's not a standard rule across all airlines.

MCCHESNEY: Kevin Blouchey(ph) from British Columbia, who's sampling reds at Beringer's, says he brought a couple of extra pillows to pack some wine into his check-on luggage. Hearing Rebecca Fine's warning, though, he wonders about a couple he met here.

Mr. KEVIN BLOUCHEY (Touring Beringer Winery): Well, I was just eating breakfast, a couple said that they bought a case of Opus One and at - what was it? - $150 a bottle, or something like that. They were madly packing it in there, saying they spent $2000 on this wine they want to make sure it gets home safely. I just hope they can get it home now.

MCCHESNEY: Perhaps hardest hit by the new carry-on rules are the many small wineries whose wines just don't make it onto retail shelves. They rely heavily on direct sales, much if which is over the counter.

Mr. JOHN SAWYER (Sawyer Vineyards): In a winery our size, you know, it's a huge component. Fifty percent of our sales are winery direct.

MCCHESNEY: John Sawyer runs Sawyer Vineyards near Rutherford.

Mr. SAWYER: We saw literally the next day that the one, two and three bottle purchasers just stopped. People are kind of afraid to even purchase wine and deal with it right now because they don't want to get to the airport and be caught.

MCCHESNEY: Over at Mumm Napa, these little bottles of bubbly are dancing down the assembly line. Kathy McClure is in charge of hospitality here.

Ms. KATHY MCCLURE (Mumm Napa Winery): This is our bottling line. We're bottling 187, which are mini-bottles, about two flutes per bottle.

MCCHESNEY: The perfect size for carry-on, but not anymore. McClure points out that even big wineries like Mumm produce premium wines unavailable in stores.

Ms. MCCLURE: Here at Mumm Napa, we probably produce about eight different styles of sparkling wine that are not available out in the market. They're winery exclusive wines. You know, people want to take those home.

MCCHESNEY: McClure says she was just on the line with her supplier ordering special check-on containers. Calls like hers prompted one wine industry wag to say a good place to invest right now would be in Styrofoam packaging companies.

John McChesney, NPR News, San Francisco.

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