A cautionary tale on traveling with wine

  With the holidays looming, many wine lovers are planning to travel to family gatherings in other parts of the country. Perhaps you thought you would take along a special bottle or two to enjoy with your friends and family. Not so fast, bucko!

  These days, wine cannot be carried on board a plane; it must be checked as luggage. Which is why the following e-mail should serve as a cautionary tale.

  Sent to me by reader Dennis Smith of Rockville, Md., it was titled, "Sea-Tac airport wine mishap." "Mishap," in this instance, was perhaps too kind. It seems that Smith, his wife and a companion had just spent eight days exploring Washington and Oregon wine country. They purchased three cases of wine to take back home to Maryland, planning to check it as luggage.

  "The sole purpose of this trip," Smith writes, "was to visit wine regions and bring back wines not available where we live. Our trip was going wonderfully ... and then we arrived at Sea-Tac airport, where things took an absolute turn for the worst.

  "My wife, myself and our friend attempted to check the three cases of wine we had collected. The ticket agent explained we were allowed just five liters of wine [about six bottles] per person as checked luggage. We found this to be odd, as for the past five years we have been traveling to California and have checked on cases of wine as luggage many times. The agent explained this was a TSA [Transportation Security Administration] regulation.

  "In truth, that regulation states you may check as luggage an unlimited amount of an alcoholic beverage as long as it's less than 24 percent alcohol."

  Smith, let the record show, is absolutely correct. In fact, the federal regs  read as follows: