Keep Your Wine Bottles Safe While Traveling Using This Simple Tool To Stop Them From Knocking Together

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You've come to the end of your road trip through the best destination in Italy for wine lovers and you've acquired one too many Tuscan Chianti bottles to take home. Or maybe you are about to board a flight after visiting this California mountain town with wineries and making a mandatory stop at the bottle shop afterwards. Whether you were planning a tannin-filled escape or you just happened to pick up a few delectable labels along the way, the trickiest part of the trip is always making sure your wine bottles don't break while traveling. While there are hacks to fly home with a whole case of wine, you may just want to bring along a couple of your favorites without having to ship them or package them with avant-garde materials. Luckily, there is a super simple and inexpensive tool specifically made to prevent glass bottles from knocking together in your bag. And no, it's not a pair of socks bundled together.

Reusable mesh sleeves, like Shappy's Wine Mesh Protective Sleeves on Amazon, are a cheap and effective way to keep your precious bottles safe. If you've tried securing wine bottles with packing peanuts or bubble wrap, you know they are a good solution, but they occupy valuable space in your luggage, can be tricky to find while traveling, and can sometimes dissolve into a mess if exposed to moisture. Instead, polyethylene, silicone, and even corrugated paper mesh sleeves will do the same job while saving you space, and they are more eco-friendly, too. The science behind this tool is simple: By adding netting around a glass object, you add a layer of friction and, at the same time, create a textured buffer zone that protects the bottles from minor impacts.

You may see wine carriers and packing accessories that promise temperature control. However, this feature isn't essential. Many travelers worry about how their liquids will fare in the plane's hold, which can get to temperatures as low as 39 degrees Fahrenheit. While that would be quite a chilly ride for passengers, wine doesn't freeze until around 25 degrees Fahrenheit and below (depending on alcohol content), so there is no risk of that happening. Plus, the tightly monitored, pressurized environment of the cargo hold means your bottles generally shouldn't explode in transit. With all this in mind, the humble mesh sleeve is sure to rise to the challenge at a fraction of the cost of other, fancier packing materials.

Mesh sleeves come in different styles and materials, meaning some of them are more resistant to impact than others. Classic plastic mesh sleeves are available to buy pretty much everywhere, including on Amazon, where you can snap up a dozen for under $10. To minimize impact and bumps, you may want to opt for a shock-proof foam sleeve. Or, for a more eco-friendly option, a stretchy, corrugated cardboard sleeve such as JoyHuaTrade's 2 Honeycomb Paper Wine Bottle Protector Sleeves sold on Amazon for less than $10 will do a very similar job. Finally, if you want a fail-proof solution that prevents your bottles from knocking together (especially larger ones that may fit snugly in the meshes, like Champagne or Prosecco) or breaking in transit, adding a layer of protection using soft materials (such as a T-shirt) can offer some added peace of mind.