Shipping and delivery
Every ANNO bottle is checked by hand and packed by us before it leaves, and delivery takes 7 to 10 working days. This page explains what happens in between, what the parcel looks like, where we ship, and what to do if something goes wrong.
What happens between your order and your doorstep
The same day, or the next working day at the latest, your order goes to whoever on the team handles that region: Bordeaux and the Rhône, Burgundy, Champagne, Piedmont, Tuscany, Rioja, Port and Armagnac. Within 24 to 48 hours the bottle has been looked at properly.
The check covers everything that can be checked without pulling a cork:
- fill level, measured against the shoulder of the bottle
- the capsule: intact, cut, or showing seepage underneath
- the label and the paper it is printed on, including staining and tears
- the colour of the wine where the glass is clear enough to read
- the paperwork that says where the bottle has been kept
If the bottle is not up to standard, we tell you, refund you in full at once, and offer you an alternative from the same year rather than quietly substituting one. Otherwise it is packed and leaves for you. Most orders arrive inside eight working days. Ten is the outside edge of the window, not the normal case.
Tracked and signed for
You get a tracking number by email as soon as the label is printed, and it will show movement within a few hours.
We require a signature. This is not us being difficult. A bottle worth several hundred euros should not be left behind a plant pot or handed to a neighbour who is out by the time you get home. If nobody answers, the courier leaves a card and tries again the next working day. You can have a parcel redirected to a collection point or a different address while it is in transit; reply to your dispatch email and we will arrange it.
Transit cover: optional, about 5% of the order
At checkout you can add transit cover for the full value of your order. It costs about 5% of the order value, shown in the cart before you pay, and it is entirely your choice: the box is unticked until you tick it.
With cover, a bottle that arrives broken, leaks in transit or goes missing is replaced with another bottle from the same year where one can be found, or refunded in full including delivery, within 48 hours of your photographs reaching us. We do not wait for the courier's investigation.
Without cover, we still handle the claim with the courier on your behalf, but replacement or refund follows the courier's own procedure and liability limits, which typically takes several weeks. Either way, photograph the outer box, the packing and the bottle before unpacking anything else, and email us within 48 hours of delivery.
Packing and temperature
The cork is the weak point of any old bottle, so ours travel upright, cushioned on every side in moulded pulp inside a rigid box, and the box itself goes inside a plain outer carton. Nothing that happens to the outside of a parcel should reach the glass.
We also watch the weather. In a July heatwave or a hard frost we will hold a bottle for a day or two rather than let it stand in an unrefrigerated depot over a weekend, and we always tell you when we do. A wine that has survived fifty years is not improved by forty degrees in the back of a van. If you have a fixed date and would rather we sent it anyway, say so and we will.
Where we ship
We ship to the countries offered at checkout, where the sale of alcohol to private customers is allowed. Today they are: Italy, San Marino and Vatican City; Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden; Monaco, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom; the United States and Canada; Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea and Taiwan.
Shipping costs depend on the destination and on the weight of the parcel, and are shown at checkout before you pay. For some destinations the checkout limits the weight of a single parcel. We do not deliver to PO boxes or to automated pick-up points. Within Europe, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg sit at the shorter end of the window; Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Finland and the islands usually add a day or two.
Duties and taxes
Within the European Union, prices include VAT and there are no customs charges. For deliveries outside the European Union, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway, import duties, excise, VAT and clearance fees of the destination country are not included in the price: they are payable by the recipient, usually to the courier before delivery. Import rules for alcohol vary from country to country; a parcel refused because these charges were not paid is treated as a failed delivery. The details are in our Shipping policy.
If a parcel is late
Occasionally tracking stalls. A depot misroutes a parcel, a strike closes a hub, a customs check on a Friday afternoon becomes a Monday morning problem. If your tracking has not moved for two working days, email us and we will chase the courier ourselves rather than sending you to do it.
If a parcel is genuinely lost and you added transit cover, we replace the bottle with the same year where one can be sourced, or refund you in full including delivery, as soon as it is clear the parcel has stopped moving. Without cover we open the courier's claim on your behalf straight away and keep you informed while it runs.
Sending it for a particular date
Order at least two weeks before the birthday, the anniversary or the wedding. That allows the full ten days and leaves a few days spare. For Christmas, order by the first week of December.
We can hold a confirmed bottle and dispatch it to arrive on a date you choose. We can send it straight to the person receiving it, with no prices anywhere in the parcel and a handwritten card in your words. Tell us at checkout or by email.
If your date is closer than two weeks, write to us before you order. Sometimes we can move quickly. Sometimes we cannot, and in that case we would rather tell you than let you hope.