The Hunt for a Decent Wine Carrier

One of the great hassles of air travel in the age of fear is this business with carry on liquids. Where once all my trips ended with me walking on the plane cradling a bottle from a local winery, it’s now a matter of either checking it in or losing it.

Throwing the bottle into my hard case wrapped up a sweater has worked so far, but eventually this will end in disaster. Plus I’d like a better solution so I don’t have to completely repack my bags if I want to make a last minute purchase.

What I want is a good 4 bottle wine caddy.
 

There are a couple of ready made solutions available on the web.

The ultra cheap alternative at US$7.50 is the Wine Shipper which is a styrofoam casing in a corrugated box. It’s effective and disposable but not exactly easy to lug around.

The expensive solution is Wine Cruzer which is a Pelican Case with a custom designed foam interior.

The 4 bottle wheeled Wine Cruzer sells for US$325. It uses the Pelican 1560 which is available on Amazon for $119. So the question is, how much is that carved foam worth to me?

 
Singapore

Pelican cases are available in Singapore at Marvid International in Ubi with the 1560 going for S$535 + GST. Direct from Amazon this same item is roughly S$350 (including ~S$90 shipping). They are also available locally online for S$589 + GST + S$6 shipping.

Storm cases, which are similar, are available at Sea & Sea at Adelphi. The closest model available is the iM2720 which is selling for S$530 + GST. Some people say the latches on the Storm are easier to use but may be weaker in tough conditions – like when you are invading Iraq. Short of that you are probably OK.

Another alternative is Cases.com.au which custom makes packing cases that will make you look like a rock star. Price-wise, however, once the bag is customized for the job, it seems a relatively expensive alternative at ~A$500.

 
So How?

At the moment I’m leaning towards shipping a Pelican case from Amazon and trying my hand at tailoring its Pick & Pluck foam interior. Alternatively, if I can get my hands on that foam, I may just get a sturdy bag from Mustafa and make my own.

Styrofoam is equally attractive but so far I haven’t found a local supplier of molded polystyrene that would fit a wine bottle and the ones on the web don’t ship internationally for retail purchases.

I could always try my own hack job with supplies from Packeverything.com.sg but, as they show on their site, the results will not be pretty…

All suggestions welcome!