Are you allowed to pack a bottle of wine in your checked suitcase?
Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but I hope someone here can answer it.TIA

Yes, but use copious amounts of bubble wrap.

Or clothing. The more paddin', the better!

The cardboard boxes the winery puts the bottles in also works just fine if you wrap a shirt or something around it.

I can't emphasize enough the need for bubble-wrap or the like.

A couple of friends were traveling back from Europe and each had a bottle or two of Grappa in their bag. One of the bags got dropped, bottle shattered, and everything - and I mean everything - in that bag got soaked.

Apparently the Italians don't consider Grappa to be "lighter fluid".

No. It's classified as paint thinner.

We've flown half a dozen times in the last few months with wine, liquor and champagne - without mishap. We do put the bottles in plastic bags, wrap them in clothes and try to position the bottles aligned with the central spine (which sticks up a bit in our Victorinox suitcases). But Mr. Canuck's sister had a maple syrup mishap en route; half the contents of the one litre bottle were sucked up by her clothes. (Which made for a fun first night housesitting our flat while were away as she strugged to decipher the French instructions for our washing machine and dryer.)

my flying with wine story.

several years ago (pre 9/11) I had a bottle of wine in my carry-on that I was taking to a friend. I placed my bag on the belt and then I passed thru the metal detector. this set off the alarm. Before I could step back and address that problem, the guy screening the bags wanted to know what was in my bag. I told him it was a bottle of wine. He said I couldn't take it on the plane. I assured him I could. after we got a more "veteran" screener to come over, I was told that I could take the bottle aboard, but was warned not to open it on the aircraft. OK. I picked up my bag and proceeded to the gate.

I realized that I had never been asked to go back thru the metal detector. the guy had been so concerned about the wine, he lost sight of his primary function. this happened at T2 in PHX.

Yes, I have done it a number of times, but I wear OR carry-on any valuable or brand new clothing. I have a size that is easy to find cute stuff in freecycle/thrift/vintage shops, so if the wine ever breaks, at least I will not be out any expensive clothing. I don't travel around with bubble wrap, so I'm afraid I just wrap the bottles very well in the clothing. I've never actually had them break any bottles though. Knock on wood! Once for some reason I had several bottles of comped wine and liquor from Vegas in my checked bag. I think I even had to put some in my husband's checked bag. The value of the alcohol was more than the value of the clothes, so it was worth the risk of breakage. Salud!

Yes, you are allowed, so long as you don't do it aloud. That might disturb others around you.

It's totally allowed. I've come back from Europe a number of times with 2-3 bottles each time, all carefully wrapped and packed with clothing around them.
I don't pack them next to each other, but on opposite sides of the suitcase, usually with a sweatshirt or something around them individually, then more clothes on either side. It's also important to pack clothes or bubble wrap on the bottom of the bag too.

Keep in mind that when returning from abroad, you are allowed to CARRY ON duty free liquor/wine/perfume/etc. as long as you acquired it (either purchased or retrieved from a pick-up window) AFTER security. You can carry it on the plane, in its sealed bag/box, until your first port of entry into the USA. After Customs, you will be required to put all bottles into your checked baggage.

So....

1) try to fly nonstop into your city in the USA

or

2) bring bubble wrap with you!

Before the ridiculous liquid ban you could of course carry on as much wine as you could fit in your roller board and lift into an overhead compartment. I have known that to be as many as eight to ten bottles....although the lifting part is quite a strain! Now you can check as many as you can fit in your suitcase (of course, subject to customs rules if you are coming back from overseas). I have never had any problems so long as I wrap each bottle in some item of clothing and pad betweent the bottles; I also arrange them so that they are head to toe, so to speak, which minimizes the potential jostling and allows more to fit. You definitely want to leave very little wiggle room in the suitcase so that the bottles will be well padded.

Now that the liquid luancy has gone world-wide, I don't bother buying ANYTHING from any duty-free anymore.

Can't be too safe y'know?

in October of 2005 we brought back 21 bottles of Italian wine stashed among 3 checked bags and 2 carry ons. I felt like a bootlegger. We were travelling in F on Air France so I think we were allowed extra weight (although we did have to shuffle things around for the VCE-CDG leg of the trip so that non of the individual bags were over the weight limit.)

Had a bottle of 2000 Brunello on Valentines day so that leaves only about 2 bottles left from the stash. We're going to Australia and New Zealand in April and hope to replenish the inventory. Ha!