Purchasing and Shipping Wine Legally
You must be 21 years of age to purchase and/or receive wine from us. There are many states where it is not legal to receive wine from California. For those of you who live in a state where you can 't legally receive wine from us, we encourage you to provide us with an alternative address in a shipper-friendly state or engage the services of a local wine storage facility to store your shipments from Premier Cru. A complete list of the states and their shipping restrictions is included below. We can also hold your shipment for a limited time for you to pick up at our Emeryville, California retail store, located minutes from downtown San Francisco. See special sales tax note below.

Any wine sold to you by Premier Cru is sold in California, and title passes to you, the buyer, in California. All orders are shipped by a licensed California wine retailer. The buyer is solely responsible for the shipment of wine. We make no representations concerning your legal right to ship or receive wine into any state outside California or any country outside the United States. By placing any wine order with Premier Cru, you authorize Premier Cru to act on your behalf to engage a common carrier to deliver your order to your selected destination.

Sales Tax: We must collect sales tax for shipments to the following states:

California - 8.75%
Louisiana- 4%
Nevada - 7.25%

Note that any order delivered to a wine storage facility based in one of those states must be charged the appropriate sales tax.

All orders picked up at Premier Cru 's store (and not shipped by a licensed carrier to an out of state destination) must be charged 8.75% sales tax regardless of where the purchaser lives or where the wine will be taken.

Returns and Cancellations:

There will be a 15% restocking/cancellation fee enforced for any order that is cancelled by the customer, including pre-arrival orders. We will waive the cancellation fee if you chose a refund to store credit which can be used for present or future purchases. By law, we are only able to accept returns on wines purchased in error. After the wine has been in your possession for at least six months, we are unable to accept returns for any reason. We do not accept any returns on bottles that have been opened.

Pricing Errors:

Prices are subject to change without notice. Premier Cru is not responsible for pricing errors that may occur on our website from time to time.

Pre-Arrival Wines:

The term "Pre-Arrival" is applied to wines that we have purchased that have not arrived yet. Depending on the particular wine, the arrival time can be anywhere between 30 days to over two years (in the case of Bordeaux Futures, for example). The most common scenario would be this: A wine is purchased from an overseas supplier. The supplier then delivers the wine to one of our overseas warehouses, usually within 2-8 weeks. The wine is then consolidated with other wines to fill a refrigerated container, which usually takes 2-4 weeks. The container is then shipped to us, arriving in the Port of Oakland, which takes another 3-4 weeks. Add another 2-3 weeks for the inevitable delay along the supply chain just to be safe. In this example, which is the most common, the time it takes for the wine to get to us after we have purchased it is approximately 3 to 6 months. Many upcoming new releases of highly desirable and sought after limited-production Burgundies, Rhones, Germans, Italians, etc. are offered on a "Pre-Arrival" basis by our suppliers as well. These offerings will take even longer to arrive, generally 6 to 18 months, but are often the only way to assure that you will actually get the wines. If you would like to find out an approximate delivery time for a partcular wine, please email us at sales@premiercru.net or call us at 510-655-6691.

States We Ship To:

Below is a list of the states that we can ship to at the present time:

AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, GA, HI, IA, ID, IL, LA, MO, NC, ND, NE, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, SC, TX, VA, WI, WV, WY.

This list is subject to change without notice.

States We Don 't Ship To:

If you live in a state other than one listed above, we encourage you to contact your state representatives and ask them to change their laws and allow you to enjoy the same rights as wine lovers in other states.

In the meantime, we suggest that you consider contracting with a professional wine storage facility here in California or in a "legal" state to receive your wine and hold it for you.

Age Verification:

You must be at least 21 years of age or older to buy wine. By placing an order with Premier Cru, whether through our website, over the phone or in person, you certify under penalty of perjury that you and the recipient are at least 21 years old. When the wine is delivered, the recipient will be required to show identification proving that he or she is at least 21 years old. The willful misrepresentation of your age or the age of the recipient is a crime in most states, and if it appears to us or to the authorities that you have done so, we will cooperate with the authorities to prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law.

Adult Signature Required:

Because of strict alcoholic beverage laws in the states to which we can legally ship wine, an adult must be present to sign for your wine order. For this reason, we encourage you to use a business address, if possible, where an adult is present during business hours. Neither we nor the shipping companies we use are authorized to accept a "signature on file" or leave a wine package at the door or with a neighbor. Shipping to a business address will also minimize the chance that a delivery will be attempted when no one is there, resulting in the wine spending more time in delivery trucks and warehouses, where it can be exposed to temperature extremes.

Shipping Companies:

Currently, we only ship via UPS, FedEx and DHL. These companies accept wine shipments and are committed to delivering them legally. It is not legal to ship wine via the US Postal Service. We can also ship by common carrier (truck), which makes sense for larger shipments, as you can then receive your wine in its original box. Please call for more information.

No PO Boxes:

A street address must be provided, since UPS, FedEx and DHL are unable to deliver to PO Boxes. You should also provide a daytime phone number for the recipient 's location, so we or the shipping company can reach you if necessary.