Packing for a wine trip is different from packing for other travel. You will spend more time in cellars (cool, often dim), in cars between producers, and at tables. You will come home with bottles. The standard packing list skips half of what actually matters.
Here is the practical version — what to bring, and what to leave behind.
Clothes and Footwear
**Layers, not bulk.** Cellars run 12–15°C regardless of the season outside. A June morning in the Barossa at 28°C means stepping into a cellar maintained at 13°C for the barrel tasting. A lightweight merino base layer or a compact fleece that folds into a day bag handles this without adding luggage weight. One layer in the bag is better than a jacket you have to carry all afternoon.
**Comfortable walking shoes that handle uneven terrain.** Cobblestones in Bordeaux's Saint-Émilion. Loose gravel drives in Napa. Rough slate terraces in the Douro. This is not the trip for new shoes or anything with slippery soles. If you're visiting cellars cut into rock — common in Burgundy and parts of Bordeaux — you'll also be navigating uneven stone floors in low light.
**Darker colours on tasting days.** Red wine on a white shirt is the wine trip rookie error. If you are wearing something you care about, put a spare shirt in the day bag.
The Tasting Kit
**A tasting notebook or app.** Vivino is useful for recording wines by label photo. Cellar Tracker works well for anything you plan to cellar. But neither replaces a small physical notebook for producer context, vintage notes, pricing, or the name of the winemaker who spent 40 minutes with you and whose next release you should buy. A pocket-sized notebook (Field Notes, Leuchtturm A6) lasts most trips without adding bulk.
**A spittoon.** This sounds fussy. It is essential. Any trip with more than two winery visits per day where you are not spitting is a trip that ends early. Collapsible silicone spittoons (the Pulltex design is good, around $15–20 online) fit in a jacket pocket. Most cellar doors provide communal buckets, but having your own means you can spit discreetly even when tasting outside or at a private estate.
**A small insulated bag for the day's purchases.** If you buy bottles during the day, they need to travel safely between stops. A 4-bottle neoprene sleeve or a small soft cooler goes a long way toward preventing damage from heat or impact. Particularly important in summer and in regions like the Barossa or Napa where driving distances between estates mean bottles sit in a warm car boot for hours.
Getting Bottles Home
This is the most consistently underestimated part of wine trip logistics.
**Padded inflatable wine bag inserts.** Styrofoam wine shippers are available cheaply in every wine region, but they add significant bulk and the Styrofoam creates a disposal problem. Padded inflatable wine bag inserts (VacuVin, WineSkin, WineChek bag-in-bag designs) protect 2–6 bottles in a checked bag without the bulk. Buy these before you leave — they are cheaper and you will have them when you need them at the first cellar door.
**Know your customs limits.** From the EU to the US: 1 litre duty-free per adult traveller, with an additional 4 litres available at a flat duty rate. From Australia to the US: similar limits apply. These are enforced at major US international airports — budget for it or ship ahead. Shipping wine internationally as air cargo runs $50–100 per bottle equivalent in fees for door-to-door service. For serious purchases, ask the cellar door whether they work with a sea freight export shipper — this brings the per-bottle cost down significantly for quantities above a case.
**Wine carriers for carry-on.** Most airlines allow a single bottle in carry-on if wrapped and placed in a sealed plastic bag. For anything more, a purpose-built rigid wine carry-on bag (Global Wine Carriers and similar brands make them) is the most protective option. They are an investment but reusable across many trips.
Region-Specific Essentials
**France and Germany:** A translation app for labels, menus, and emails from producers who respond in French or German. Google Translate's camera feature handles wine labels well. DeepL is better for free-text correspondence. A brief attempt at the local language is always appreciated, even when the conversation moves to English within a sentence.
**Australia and South Africa:** Sunscreen and a hat. This is obvious but a full day of cellar door visits in February in the Barossa or March in Stellenbosch involves more sun exposure than most wine-focused itineraries acknowledge. Factor it in.
**Burgundy:** Cash. Several smaller domaines still prefer cash payment, and the ATM density in rural Burgundy is genuinely low. €150–200 in small denominations covers most situations comfortably.
**Any region with serious cellar visits:** Avoid wearing perfume or cologne on tasting days. Most serious producers will ask you not to wear fragrance — it affects your own ability to smell the wine, and other tasters' experience. Leave it in the room.
What to Leave Behind
**Fragrance on tasting days** — as above.
**An overfull day schedule.** Two to three tastings per day is the maximum if you want to experience each properly. A day with five wineries penciled in means five shallow experiences rather than three good ones. This is technically a packing list problem: the schedule you're packing is wrong. The correct load for a wine trip is fewer producers, more time at each.
**Too many clothes.** A week in Napa or Bordeaux requires less clothing than most travelers pack — and more room for bottles. One checked bag and one carry-on, with space planned for bottles, is the right configuration. If you find yourself adding a third bag "just in case," remove things instead.
Use our [trip planner](/) to build a realistic daily schedule — it accounts for driving time between estates, a sensible number of stops per day, and seasonal timing.