Let’s Talk about Wine… Getting Vino on the Go as an RVer or Boater!

Ok, time for a little fun and talking about a subject near and dear to our hearts .. and livers.

WINE!

Yes, we love it – there’s no secret there at all.

But how do you get wine while RVing and boating? Well, not just any wine.. unique and special wines.

We’re going LIVE on YouTube this evening (Sunday at 6pm), sharing some tips we’ve learned over the years:

The Obvious – Stores!

Well of course, when you do your grocery shopping you can restock the wine shelf too. Well, at least in most states.

Sometimes you might need to visit a specific package store to purchase wine, and there may be restrictions on days or hours you can purchase alcohol.

We wrote an app for that back in 2010 called State Lines that tracks over 50 state laws like this that change as you cross the line, with the frustrating variety of alcohol laws being a prime motivator!

Bottled wines can be bulky however, which is where boxed wines can be super handy. They come in a variety of sizes from a couple of glasses to 6 bottles. They store much easier in an RV or boat, they’re easier to transport, no glass to potentially break and they stay fresh for 4-6 weeks after opening (we wouldn’t know.. it never lasts that long).

And bonus, when you’re done with the box you can take the pouch out and inflate it – instant travel pillow!

Bota Box has become a staple in our travels – consistently decent wines, usually for under $20 for a box.

Visiting Wineries

Traveling of course opens the doors to visiting a variety of wineries. You can even visit areas of the country where wineries are prolific, staying at a nearby RV park and touring around.

Napa Valley, Lodi, Paso Robles in California are all popular, and we also love Fredericksburg, Texas with 60+ wineries to sample!

But even better is the opportunity to park at the winery, enjoy a bottle (or two) and then stay in your RV overnight. That way you and your driver can indulge, and you get to experience a unique stay in usually scenic secluded location.

We’ve been members of Harvest Hosts pretty much since it was started by our Kim & Don Greene, and have a lifetime membership they so kindly gifted us.

We’ve enjoyed many stays at wineries across the country, as well as breweries, museums, farms and more. Harvest Hosts was bought out a few years back, and the business model has changed to be affiliate supported – and they’ve recently raised a huge amount of investment capital to keep expanding their network of hosts.

It remains a great program, as long as you don’t look at it as ‘free camping’ – but more as being able to stay at small businesses you support along your way.

If you’d like to join, our affiliate link will get you a 15% discount off the $79 annual cost, and we get a $15 referral fee:

Join Harvest Hosts & Save 15%

Wine Clubs

As you travel and visit wineries, you’ll likely be invited to join Wine Clubs. These generally get you discounts, or even free wine, at the winery itself in exchange for committing to purchase a few bottles a few times a year. Many will even ship your bottles to you.

But as a nomad, your shipping location likely will be changing quite often. And sure, you could have your wine shipped to your mail forwarding address, but forwarding wine on can become expensive and may not even be allowed.

And that presents a few problems and logistical challenges.

1. You have to remember to change your shipping address with the winery BEFORE they begin shipping, which means you have to keep on top of their shipping schedule. Which may be not be precisely as they advertise.
2. Some states just simply don’t allow wine to be shipped to them – in particular AL, AR, DE, MS, NJ, RI, or UT don’t allow it. And others may have special rules. So while in these states, you won’t be able to receive your shipment.
3. Some may have long term commitments that just don’t line up with the variability of nomadic life.
4. You’re committing to a single winery which is great if you love them, but there’s so much variety out there!

We did find one club flexible enough to try – Grape Creek – while visiting Fredericksburg in 2019. We stayed a month at a campground across the street from them. Every day while there, we each got a FREE GLASS of wine – and we only had to commit to one shipment of at least 3 bottles. As we knew our next address was shippable and lined up with their predicted ship date, that part was easy. But afterwards, it just wasn’t sustainable as we got back on the move. Of course, for the past year as we’ve been home based, it would have worked out well.

Speaking of being still this past year, we have been experimenting with ways to get unique wines beyond what is available at our local grocer. We’ve tried shipments from Total Wines, which was ok.

Naked Wines

Back in November however we decided to try Naked Wines – which is proving to be a great balance for a nomadic wino.

Basically you become an ‘angel’ by prepaying $40/month that they use to back small independent vineyards. Your credits can accumulate as long as you like, or you can even pause them – but anything on account gets applied to your next order. Being an angel gets you discounts that brings many great wines into the $10-20 range, and they offer a free bonus wine each month.

And the best part, for nomads anyway, is that you can update your address anytime and you choose when you get a shipment. So if you won’t be somewhere to receive a box for a while, no problem.

There’s no commitments, and you can even cancel and get all your prepaid contributions refunded.

Because they support several wineries, you get access to more than just one winery’s worth of options – so you can continually try new stuff. They have quite a selection, and many tools to help you find great stuff.

You can assemble your own case, select from their variety packs or they’ll send out specially selected cases for you based on your ratings. And shipping on orders over $100 is free, and our experience has been – shipping is quick and reliable, usually 2-3 days.

We’ve been enjoying it these past few months while home-based in Sanford aboard our boat, and when we get back to active nomadic life – we anticipate we’ll keep this option around.

If you’d like to give it a try, our referral link gives you a $100 discount off your first case priced at $159 or higher, and gives us a $40 credit towards future wine purchases – it’s a Wine Wine situation:

Give Naked Wines a Try, Save $100

Receiving Gifts

And of course our absolute favorite way to obtain wine is when it’s gifted to us. Many long term followers know our love of wine, and we’ve been blessed over the years to find a bottle waiting at our door step, or new friends bringing a bottle to a pre-arranged meetup or event we’re attending.

Always appreciated, for sure.

After all, we host this blog for fun.. and meeting new friends to share a glass with!

 

If you have any additional tips to share on obtaining wine in your travels, please do share in the comments!