I travel regularly for business and often find that a bottle of liquor, wine, or other alcohol often makes its way back home with me in my luggage. It’s fun exploring local liquor stores and seeing what local gems you can find. Every now and then I even find a forgotten, rare bottle at its original price that just needs a quick dusting. With scores like these, it’s important that they make it home in one piece. Whoever said don’t cry over spilled milk clearly didn’t drink whiskey! I outline my 4 step method for packing below.

Before proceeding, you will need to check how much you alcohol actually can bring back if traveling international. I outline my multiple bottle packing method at the bottom. You could also use something like the Jet Bag.

Step 1: Create a Base Layer.

Most luggage contains a hard spine where the extendable handle is stored. The hard spine, glass bottles, and ground crews don’t mix well, so you will want to be sure that you are adequately padding the bottom of your suitcase. I like to used my undershirts for this step. You will want the padded base to be at least 1 inch thick, but 2 inches is better (depending upon how much laundry you have to pack).

Step 2: Create the Nest

The sides of standard luggage also contain a hard plastic frame. To protect against contact with the frame, I ball up my socks and underwear around the edges to create a nest in which I will lay my bottle. A pair of jeans wrapped in a circle works well for this too.

Step 3: Pack the Liquor, Wine, Alcohol in you Luggage

Now that we have out nest created, its time to put the precious cargo in. I first wrap the bottle in a plastic bag and tie tight, just in case. Next, I put the stem of the bottle in a packed shoe if I have one, then lay it in the nest (see photo for example). I fill in any gaps with the other shoe and additional clothing so that there is minimal movement allowed for the bottle in the luggage.

(If you don’t already, you should always travel with plastic bags – they are great or keeping shoes off clean items, keeping dirty/wet clothes separate, and most importantly should you need more space, no airport or airline ever questions a plastic bag as an additional carry on. A friend of mine taught me this trick as airlines assume you purchased the items contained in the airport. It’s really a question of whether or not you feel comfortable hauling around a plastic bag at the airport. I personally flew first class with a plastic bag in hand once. Full suit accented with a plastic bag – classy. Why yes I would like a drink while I sit in the front of the plane with my plastic bag – a double of jack and coke, hold the coke please.)

Step 4: Create the Top Layer

The final step is to lay some additional padding on the top of the bottle. Suitcase are typically soft-shelled on the front flap side, so there is low risk of contact like we have with the rear spine. However, ground crews always lay suitcases front down (fun fact: they go up rubber conveyor belts without slipping this way). Given this, its important we make sure to adequately add some padding over the next. 1 inch should be fine. Now place your dopp kit at the base for an additional impact zone and you are all set to travel!

A Note on Multiple Bottles

Whats better then one bottom of the aqua vitae? Two.

When packing a second bottle of liquor, wine, or other alcohol, follow the steps above but when placing your bottles in the nest in Step 3, bag and shoe the second bottle as well. You will need to finagle and wrangle the bottle on there depending on the size, but it will keep things safe. Please see the photo below for an example of how I typically pack for two.