Bringing a case of wine into Canada to bring aboard HAL cruise

I don't know whether this question ought to be on the HAL board, or the Canada Ports board. So I'll post it to both!

I know that HAL allows wine to be brought aboard for free. My wife and I have done this before, usually with a case or two of wine we check as luggage when we fly to the departure port. We'd like to do this again on our upcoming Maasdam cruise from Montreal to Boston.

But this time we will flying into Canada. Does anyone know whether we will be dinged by Canada Customs for wine we bring in? If yes, what will the duty be?

Besides possible customs duty, are their any other pitfalls folks can foresee???

Thanks in advance for your replies!

--Marne

From the Canada Border Services Agency (info is available online):

http://cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/bsf5119-eng.html

Alcoholic beverages

Alcoholic beverages are products that exceed 0.5% alcohol by volume. If you meet the minimum age requirements of the province or territory where you enter Canada, you can include limited quantities of alcoholic beverages in your personal entitlement. Minimum ages for the importation of alcoholic beverages, as prescribed by provincial or territorial authorities, are as follows: 18 years for Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec; and 19 years for the remaining provinces and territories.

You are allowed to import only one of the following amounts of alcoholic beverages free of duty and taxes:

• 1.5 litres (53 imperial ounces) of wine; or
  
• a total of 1.14 litres (40 ounces) of alcoholic beverages; or
  
• up to 8.5 litres of beer or ale.
  

Any additional information you require would be best obtained from the link provided above and not a message board, no offense intended.

I would buy the wine in Canada.

Speaking from experience, customs agents in Canada just love to open up boxes, suitcases they kind of ignore. Agree with maryann_ns. Purchase your wine in Canada. Just be aware that wine is not sold in supermarkets, etc.

Just be aware that wine is not sold in supermarkets, etc.

Depends on the province. Wine is most definitely sold in supermarkets in Quebec (but then again, as we are French, it's a staple food for us... :D)

Depends on the province. Wine is most definitely sold in supermarkets in Quebec (but then again, as we are French, it's a staple food for us... :D)

You are right; I see OP is going to Montreal. I don't know why I thought it was NS.

The rate of duties, taxes and other fees vary from province to province but I have recently read that these costs can run more than $25 / bottle. We live in AZ for about 5 months a year and are often tempted to bring back a case or two of wine....but those costs make it very prohibitive.

I don't know whether this question ought to be on the HAL board, or the Canada Ports board. So I'll post it to both!

 

I know that HAL allows wine to be brought aboard for free. My wife and I have done this before, usually with a case or two of wine we check as luggage when we fly to the departure port. We'd like to do this again on our upcoming Maasdam cruise from Montreal to Boston.

 

But this time we will flying into Canada. Does anyone know whether we will be dinged by Canada Customs for wine we bring in? If yes, what will the duty be?

 

Besides possible customs duty, are their any other pitfalls folks can foresee???

 

Thanks in advance for your replies!

 

 

--Marne

Anything over your allowance (2 bottles each) will be subject to quite high duties/excise taxes. I would bring 2 bottles each, and buy additional wine in Canada. Experiment, there are some quite good wineries in Canada!

Yes anything over your two 75 mls will cost you an arm and a leg in Taxes. Well about double on a 8$ bottle from the US. There is a max on the tax however and it was around 13 bucks a few yrs ago.

But you can bring as much as you want and pay them taxes. :D Basically what it does is put the price of your case at around the same price of a case of BC purchased wine.. Our VQA wines most of which are pretty good these days run around 18-25 bucks and up of course.

We've paid duty entering BC and Ontario due to being over the limits - and in both provinces the final cost ended up being within pennies of the retail price in the provincial liquor stores for wine & liquor (beer though is TOTALLY worth paying duty on - at about $10 a case you can still save boatloads of cash buying in the US and paying duty).

According to the SAQ, Quebec does exactly the same - you still have to pay the 'SAQ markup' to bring the cost to approx. the same as retail. In other words, don't bother!

Since this means you'll undoubtedly end up shopping for at least some wine locally in Montreal, I'll also recommend that you try at least one of the wonderful Ice Ciders that get made in the area - they have a lovely crispness that offsets the sugar, so if you find ice wine too sweet they might be perfect. Any restaurant in Montreal that serves Foie Gras will probably sell you some by the glass as it makes an even better accompaniment than Sauternes if you ask me.

To enter canada through BC the taxes and duties on liquor would be 102%. The only wine I would consider bringing into Canada would be NAPA valley wines as they retail for up to 3 times the US price.

example:

$14 Mondavi Napa Cab sell for $39cdn

$17 Beringer Knight valley Cab sell for $42cdn

Opus One is $330cdn

I just spent a week in Napa so I know my prices. It killed me to only bring back 4 bottles.:(

As the OP, I now must bow to overwhelming data. I will NOT bring wine into Canada. (Well, I will bring in the allowed-without-duty 2 bottles per person…)

Lots of comments here and very useful links (and links on links) led me to that conclusion. The last straw was in this link, which says that for landing in Province Quebec, the total duty on bottles of wine would be:

Bottle Price..........Approximate Duty

. . $10........................$20

. . $25........................$48

. . $50........................$95

YIKES!!!! And this is 2007 data, so current costs are likely to be more.

Oh well…..

--Marne

Can anyone recommend wine stores close to the Montreal cruise port or Le Westin?