Self Imported Champagne

[simon1980]

Over the past few months I have seen a couple of questions about bringing wine into Australia, and lots of comments about the cost of imported wine in Australia. With this in mind, I thought this post may both add to conversation, and also help people understand the costs and process of (personally) importing a small quantity of wine into Australia.

Last year I decided to bring in a few boxes of grower Champagne in from a small producer near Reims, and thought I would share my experience...

The Buy

I chose to buy 10 cases from a small grower in Rilly-la Montagne. I had visited before, and rated the wines...and was able to secure a reasonable discount on the list price. It soon became apparent how important any savings were on cost price (tax, tax, tax)! The order needed to come in less than 100 litres (this is the max you can import without a licence). The grower also applied back labels to the Champagne, to cover off Australian labelling regulations (this was checked at customs). The details required were: bottle size (750ml), Importers Name and Address, Alc %, No of Standard drinks, country of origin and “contains sulphites”. All pretty smooth, with a simple international bank transfer completing the process.

The Shipping

The grower was used to using JF Hillebrand to ship. This was a pretty costly E400 (I am sure it would be possible to get it much cheaper) but these guys dealt with all the paperwork, and were excellent. I would recommend them as the communication was spot on...and despite this being tiny in comparison to their regular business, my order always felt like a priority. I also got insurance (E50). The wine was shipped in a cooled container (absolutely vital) of which there was only 1 departing per month from the local port. There were additional costs on arrival...Port charges at $80 / Customs clearance $210 / Delivery to my address $140.

The Tax

I had the French VAT taken off at the far end – a helpful 19.6%. However, this was a tiny saving in comparison to the many waves of tax faced when the wine arrived in Melbourne docks! Here is the list of taxes:

Landing Duty: 5% of the cost of the wine.
WET: 29% of the customs value + cost of insurance + cost of transport. The customs value is Cost of Wine+ Port Costs + Landing Duty.
GST: 10% of the customs value + cost of insurance + cost of transport + WET.

In total the cost of tax was 63% of the total cost price of the Champagne...

The Basic Numbers

So, each bottle came in at $32.50, and this is where the cost came from:

Cost of product: 45% ($14.62)
Shipping: 15% ($4.88)
Other costs on arrival: 12% ($3.89)
Tax: 28% ($9.10)

The Summary

Overall I have been delighted with the Champagne, and it would be nearly impossible to find similar quality for sub-$50 (and you could quite easily pay a lot more). I enjoyed the process, and it was pretty straightforward. I suspect it was so smooth due to the fact the shipping company were so good. However, I am fully aware that this is a pretty expensive way of doing it: the small quantity makes the fixed costs increasingly painful, and I am sure there are ways of reducing the cost of shipping (having an extra benefit reducing the cost of the tax). If anyone wants to do it sometime, I hope this post helps out... If anyone is daft enough to give it a go sometime, please let me know if I can help in any way!

simon1980

[Mike Hawkins]

Thanks Simon,

I'm moving back to Sydney next year and was planning to buy 20+ cases from about 6 different houses, but your post has given me food for thought (labelling issues and the 100 litres weren't things I was aware of).

I've been to virtually all the R-L-M producers and there is one that is head and shoulders above the rest (one that Gavin often refers to as one of his favourites). I hope that was the one you chose...

Mike

[Eurocentric]

The bottles must also show lot numbers somewhere -- on the label, capsule, even on the glass, and this should be repeated on the invoice.

If you're doing this sort of thing, I think it's worth it to pay extra for refrigerated trucking in France too.

Didn't know about the 100-litre limit, but then I bring in about 7200 litres at a time

Your starting price for the champagne was pretty sharp -- that's less the 19.6% tax I presume. Couldn't be Vilmart for that price, could it?

[Wizz]

Yep, I've also struck the 100 litre limit bringing in an aggregated shipment of Auburns for all our SE Qld based mailing list customers.

[Gavin Trott]

. Couldn't be Vilmart for that price, could it?

Sadly no ... or I'd buy it all!

.