Spain Trip
 

My husband and I are Oenophiles and are traveling to Spain over Thanksgiving week with our daughter and her husband. Daughter recommends we bring our Wine Trolley and fill it with wine and bring back. We have done this successfully in California, but my husband is concerned about dragging the wine trolley through Spain is too much hassell. We will probably travel from Madrid to Seville by train (wine trolley will be empty at that point). We will probably drive from Sevilla to Granada to Madrid by car.

Okay, is this Wine Trolley packable so that you can put it in checked luggage? Unless it can go as checked luggage, it's not going anywhere if it's filled with wine.

Overall, it's a bad idea.

What is your Wine Trolley?

I googled that and came up with pieces of furniture or tours.

You certainly have my interest.

Does it go toot?

I have a cochinillo caboose.

Andalucia isn't wine country, it's olive oil country and sherry country.

Edbert, sherry is wine...

Sorry, that should be Egbert!

Egbert, that was my thoughts too.
But each to their own.

"Andalucia isn't wine country, it's olive oil country and sherry country."

Not exactly. Red and especially whites have been produced in the South for long, but lately the Ronda reds have improved greatly. One of them, the Cortijo Los Aguilares Pinot noir has won the Gold Medal in France, amongs about 1.500 other pinots. Being a "blind" tasting, they had to check the map when uncovered.

Ms LeSuer, I mean Joan: as I have I have told you numerous times, this is quite easy as we do this on every trip. I know you had no trouble checking the back without having it shrinkwrapped and you had no breakage. At the T1 terminal, you should have the wine luggage shrinkwrapped and the airline will put fragile stckers on it. We will also make some of our own to bring on the off chance they have none.

To the above posters, the wine trolley is wine luggage that is padded. I have wrote extensive posts on using it to bring back wine here. I have never had an issue with breakage in checked luggage. We will be bribing back sherry and shopponing in Madrid at my wine vendor of choice who also will pack the the wine luggage and additionally secure the bottles.

If others would like more info on what the luggage is or my meathos of packing cases of wine to check, I will repost.

As an aside, what does the QB mean?
~Veda

Pardon my spell errors, stupid iPhone autocorrected and I hit submit pripr to preview. Addidionally Joelle is correct in her comment on southern Spanish wines.

I realize Southern Spain isn't necessarily wine country, but I believe you can buy Spanish wine in souther Spain from all regions. CherryBomb described the wine trolley which was given to me about a month before liquids were banned from carry ons. These trollies are about the size of a standard carry on roller bag and can be purchased at IWA, Wine Enthusiast or at a number of other on line wine accessory suppliers. I have successfully checked wine in the US, and am not concerned about checking it from Spain, but my husband's concern is the hassell of dragging an extra bag. I'm also interested in how much it would cost to have a wine vendor ship. What about duty? fyi (queen bee)

Queen Bee: Having the vendor ship is considerably more expensive, at least 100€ for them to pack and ship a case. It is not worth it unless you are buying pricey wines. But since you are buying non-imported wines to cellar it is more cost effective to check as luggage yourself. As far as duty, you only declare value not quantity. If you are flagged at customs and they want to waste time charging you the tax, they certainly can and you just pay it. It will not amount to more than it would cost to ship. I have had my luggage flagged for search at customs with 15 bottles and 20+ cartons of Gauloises and they did not say anything nor charge us duty when they were well within right and I would have paid it.

As far as the hassle of schlepping the wine around, it is roller luggage and you will have a car for most of the duration of travel. Further, the majority of wine will be purchased prior to leaving while in Madrid.

This thread is giving me serious lolz.
~Christina.

Why don't you go to Logrono instead of Andalucia if you really want to to wine country? You can take a train from Madrid to Logrono (leaves around 6 PM, arrrives at 9: 35 - just in time to hit the famed tapas bars on Laurel Street. You can stay at the marvelous and affordable Marques de Vallejo Hotel hthttp://www.hotellosagustinos.com/tp://www.hotelmarquesdevallejo.com/ and do daytrips to the various rioja wineries from there - either by public transport or by car. You can also take a bus or train to Haro and stay in my favorite hotel ever (Los Agustinos) - deals are found on booking.com - it's a short walk to many amazing wineries.

Sherry country is fun (I especially recommend Sanlucar de Barrameda) but if you are into wine and near Madrid, I would definitely hit La Rioja. There's fun to be had in the Catalonian wine country as well but I have on;y scratcehd the surface there.

Im not an expert on Oenophila, but wouldnt this be a sacred pilgrimage for one? True Oenophiles wouldnt complain about dragging the trolley, but then again true oenophiles wouldnt just raid an Andulsian wine shop before their return flight.

As for me, I love wine and especially Reds. However there is no way Im dragging around a trolley to save $5-10/bottle

Hmm, I might have to retract my last post. I should have googled the word first. It seems Oenophila has a much softer meaning these days than what I learned(or thought I learned) many years ago. I thought it ewfered to someone completely devoted to the art of buying, storing and consuming wine. I am only an expert on the latter(and a simple one at that)

Or you could buy similar wines at the Duty Free shop on your way out of the country.

frank and cheapbox:
Please see my above posts regardingthe ease of transporting wine via flight. Duty free does not stock the wines we are referring to nor is this about buying cheap wine. It is about buying small vinyard cellarable wines that are superior to what is imported (not to say that the wine is superior for virtue of not being imported)

username: I considered Rioja or even Castile and surrounding enviorons for this trip bit other interests led to Andalusia.

We will not be raiding an Andelusian wine vendor, rather, we will procure sherry and carefully picked wines that make sense and show potential for ageing. I have a vendor in Madrid who assists with this.

Anyhoo, this thread had been worked to death. The Queen Bee really needs some assistant with eeking out some itinerary items, this we've discussed to death. And has no real relevant info added other than permeutations of "why would you do this"

Joan_QueenBee, I suggest you post on the other thread specific to the trip itinerary.

Why bother? I can purchase most of the best wines Spain has to offer at the Spanish Table (Seattle, Berkley & Mill Valley). If they don't carry what you want, they know how to obtain it.

You can find some excellent prices when purchasing some of the limited production wines at most bodegas, but you'll need reservations just to get in the door.

Now if you're thinking about bringing back some excellent Jerez brandies, not readily available at home, then it might be worth taking along your little wine trolley.

I agree that it is worth it to bring back wine from foreign destinations. Many times we thought we could get the wine or have someone procure it 4 us when returning to the US, but that has not always been the case. Some wines are from small vineyards and it just would not be cost effective for a US vendor to get bottles from them for u.

And I also agree it is too bad when people become condescending or know it alls on these boards.

Sorry Joan,
My reply was not meant to be mean spirited as I actually don't know much about wine other than if I like one I will drink it again and am not an expert on transport or customs. I was giving you a one line from my recent experience in Sardinia where every bottle of wine, red and white, that we tasted was great and with a good price. 10 dollars a bottle. I assumed the one (Argiolas vineyard by the way) I was drinking was local and not to be seen again....low and behold they had many from the same vineyard on the shelf at the Duty Free. I also found one bottle of the same brand at my local store here in Sweden. That is why I said to buy it at the Duty Free- only a one line abbreviated version.
You will find some friendly folks on the boards too. I hope you come back again. :)

Sherry country is a lot of fun - I have done it twice. In Sanlucar, they claim that the manzanilla tastes different there (meaning while you are drinking it there) than when you take the bottle out of the microclimate and drink it elsewhere. Plus you can buy the stuff fresh out of the barrels (BYOB if you want) and drink it right away - get some local seafood and have a picnic! it's dirt cheap and so tasty.