Italian Multi-Winery Wine Consolidation Door-to-Door Import

Project Background

The client, a domestic wine trading company, planned to purchase multiple wines from several wineries across Italian regions (Piedmont, Tuscany, Veneto, etc.) and consolidate them into a single full-container shipment to Tianjin Port. Main requirements included:

• Multi-winery consolidation: Pickup from multiple wineries and centralized container loading within Italy were required, rather than direct dispatch from a single winery.
• Quality assurance: Wine is temperature-sensitive and summer shipments in particular require tight control of heat risk; collision damage during transit also had to be prevented.
• One-stop delivery: The client wanted a single service provider to coordinate the full chain of Italian pickup, export declaration, ocean booking, temperature-controlled transport, Chinese clearance and warehouse delivery, reducing intermediate touch points.

Solution

Based on the client’s needs, we developed the following operating plan:

Italian Inland Consolidation and Loading: We coordinated with five wineries across three regions to prepare the cargo in batches, with our Italian partner fleet picking up each lot door-to-door. All cargo was delivered to a consolidation warehouse near the port of Genoa for centralized tallying, label and quantity verification, and then loaded into the container.

Three-Layer Packaging and Protection Options:

• Pallet insulation film wrap: each pallet was wrapped in multiple layers of insulating bubble film to slow heat conduction and add cushioning.
• Full-container insulation blanket: aluminum foil insulation blankets were laid along the inner walls of the container to slow external heat from penetrating inward.
• Reefer container configuration: based on the shipping season (summer), a reefer container was selected and set at around 18°C for the entire journey to keep the wine stable.

Transport and Clearance: Departing from the port of Genoa, Italy, transshipped via Shanghai / Singapore to Tianjin Port. We prepared the Italian export documents (health certificate, certificate of origin, bottling certificate, etc.) and Chinese import filing materials in advance. After arrival, we quickly completed customs and inspection declaration, inspection cooperation, and duty payment; after release we arranged trucking to the client’s designated Beijing / Tianjin warehouse.

Project Results

• Lead time: From the pickup of the last winery lot to the consignee’s signature in China, the whole journey took about 50 days, covering Italian consolidation, ocean freight, clearance and delivery.
• Quality: Sampling inspection after opening showed no significant condensation on the bottles, intact seals, and no leakage or bulging corks.
• Cost: The FCL door-to-door cost was well controlled, saving about 12% on logistics cost compared with the client’s own segmented operation.
• Experience: The client dealt with a single dedicated customer service contact and tracked every step via the online system, without having to engage separately with the Italian overseas agent, shipping line, Chinese customs broker and trucking fleet.