Worth a trip to Cherbourg for cheap beer/wine?

Beer is almost as cheap here - if you look out for the offers in supermarkets, e.g. 24 33cl bottles for about euro 24.....
I've done the France run twice a year for years and have never been asked by Customs if I had exceeded the 90 litre limit. They did look in our van one time but they were looking for tobacco (or maybe immigrants!) and did not even glance at the masses of wine..... I've known people to bring 1,000 bottles in a van..... By the way, I think the 90 litres is per person.....:D
 
beer:
24 bottles 25ml of stella- €8.50
30 bottles 25ml of kronenburg- €8.50
1 lt bottles of hineken €1.15
these were the approx costs last weekend.
I don't know of anywhere with these prices here.
james
 
As I understand the law, there is no legal limit on the amount of wine you can import - as long as it is for personal use (i.e. not for resale commercially).
This is (or should be) guaranteed under EU law relating to free movement of goods.

The Revenue has an indicative limit of 90 litres per person. Above this amount you may be asked to show that it is for personal use. However, I have brought in varying amounts of wine, above 90 litres and have never been queried.

Below is an explanation from the Revenue webpage (I've used Google cache, as the direct link seems to be broken).

===================================================

1. What are the Duty Free and Duty Paid allowance for Travellers?
As and from 30 June, 1999, duty-free sales to travellers on intra-Community journeys will be abolished. This means that such travellers will no longer be able to purchase goods free of excise duty and VAT. Such purchases - with the exception of food, drink and tobacco products for on-board consumption - will now be subject to normal rates of excise duty and VAT. Duty-free sales will, however, continue for passengers travelling to destinations outside the EU. Further information can be found in the [broken link removed].

No additional duty or tax will be charged on goods bought duty and tax paid (e.g. in shops, supermarkets etc.) in another EU country, provided the goods are for your personal use.

If your purchases are equivalent to or less than the quantities shown in the table they will, generally speaking, be regarded as for personal use. If you exceed these quantities you may have to show that the goods are for your personal use.

GOODS MAXIMUM QUANTITY

Cigarettes 800

Cigarillos 400

Cigars 200

Smoking Tobacco 1kg

Spirits (whiskey, gin, vodka, etc.) 10 litres

Intermediate Products (e.g. port, sherry,etc.

but not including sparkling wine) 20 litres

Wine (of which only 60 litres can be sparkling) 90 litres

Beer 110 litres

TRAVELLERS UNDER 17 ARE NOT ENTITLED TO TOBACCO OR DRINKS ALLOWANCES.
 
A word of warning ...Don't risk the €99 "4 hours at the port" trip, I did it twice, Dec 2003 worked out ok, but Oct 2004 had only 40 minutes as the boat was delayed by rough weather (different story) and was sticking to the original return departure time from Cherbourg. I have concerns about the current employment ethics of Irish Ferries also. Found Auchan to be the better of the Hypermarkets. Carrefour prices are listed on [broken link removed]click the link "Entrer dans le magasin sans s'identifier" and you will see Cave au vin link after the next page I think.
 
Im just back from Cherbourg and it was a worthwhile we trip. Here are a few tips.

My Toyota Avensis hatchback carried 25 cases of wine with roof box taking personal belongings.

I went o Normandie Wine Warehouse, got list from website and faxed over my order. He had it ready on a pallet when I arrived. This saved loads of time searching through boxes and possibly missing something or buying on impulse.
www.normandiewine.com.

Supermarket (Carrefoure) stocked cheaper wines but not the same quality. Wine world cater for the English Market. Cheaper wines and all priced in £STG.

Beer is hardly worth bothering about as there is very little savings except for Stella Artois @€8.95 for 24 25cl bottles.

Two brandy and ports cost €17.50 on the ferry!!! 1 Litre of Brandy Cost €27 in the shop on ferry. You guessed right...the rest of the brandies worked out a lot cheaper!!!!!! I didnt see the sign that read "only alcohol bought here can be consumed in this area" until it was too late....for Irish Ferries.

We got a very reasonable hotel close to everything for only €55 for two people.
 
Hi all,

Just been lookin into this for the Crimbo. See [broken link removed] with trips from €167 for a car + 2 people.

Info on limits, etc.

Thanks for all the info on this post, very interesting.
 
Went to Roscoff last month and managed to get 40 cases :D into my 3 series (which isn't the biggest on the boot front)..told the missus that anything she wanted to bring over for the weekend had to fit under her feet!

Went to the wineandbeersupermaket and found it very good. Went to a Super U supermarket too and they had a good selection but it's a bit messy buying single bottles. They had a cracking offer on Cotes du Rhone though - 6 bottles for 8 yoyo and it's gorgeous for mid-week drinking . ;)

We had 6 hours in Roscoff and found it ample. If you are looking for a superb restaurant check out L'Egumes du Jour..in Roscoff harbour...we had scallops, duck, cheese board and some Chablis for 27pp and it was top class.

Also well worth buying is pate/terrine and coffee in the Super U - way cheaper than here.

We paid 265 for our ferry as it was an extra tenner for an upper deck cabin which I defo recommend....you'd spend that on a weekend away here.

Will be going back again next year!

Firefly.
 
I did a trip before, but the depressing crossing on the Normandie put a nail in my wine casket.

Never again on that coffin ship!

They even have a bunch of hanging baskets in the Mollie Malone's Bar - very clever on a boat.

BM
 
joe sod said:
You would want to be bringing back an awful lot of alcohol to get back the €250.
Click to expand...

Apart from the fact that you need to be buying vast quantities of beer / wine to justify the €250, what about the fuel costs on both sides? An even greater cost is the time required to invest in something like this. Attribute an hourly rate to your time and watch the losses build up. Absolute madness in my opinion (unless you enjoy carting tonnes of stuff a few hundred miles in a car and on a horrible ferry).

How many hours does a trip like this take? (Including planning?)

Makes an awful lot more sense to ship wines in from France / South Africa / other countries.
 
€250 is pretty easy to make up. Even just buying cheap Guigal Cote du Rhone, selling for €12.50 in Superquinn, you need just over two cases to make the saving. It's less than €7 a bottle there. considering you could easily get 10+ cases into a mid size car, that's quite a saving.

Having said that. I've only ever done the overnight Cork-Roscoff route, so you can sleep most of the journey anyway.
Leo
 
I am a huge fan of the Ireland/France run - this time we spent 2 weeks in Normandy & stuffed the car to the gills with wine, beer, food & Christmas pressies (yes, I am disgustingly organised).

We saved an absolute fortune compared to Irish prices, even deducting the cost of the crossing - especially in the wine & fizz area. If we'd a van instead of my car, we would have brought back even more beer. But even still, it was HALF the price of what we pay at home in Tesco etc.

As for crossings, I much preferred the Cork/Roscoff run with Brittany Ferries compared to that cesspool of hell known as the MV Normandy with Irish Ferries... it is rank!

However, Cherbourg is a great place for shopping - Wine & Beer World in the Carrefour S/C is great, as is Carrefour itself, also Auchan about 10 mins drive away. I've stayed in the Hotel Ambassadeur twice & it's great value for money, with plenty of good restaurants in the vicinity

Roscoff, there's plenty of supermarkets & wine outlets within 10 mins drive of the port. I would recommed www.winebeersupermarket.com - great selection & v. reasonably prices
 
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