Wines in Spain
 

I will be going to BCN and MAD end of March. I wonder what good wine can a bring back to the States and where can I find it? I guess custom only allow one bottle per person. Preferably less than 40 euro. Any suggestions?

Thanks

MN

You have a huge choice of great wines from so many different regions, not only the Rioja and Ribera del Duero, for 40 euros and under.

While the great Priorat reds tend to be pricey, you have great Navarra reds and rosés, reds from the Penedès, Somontano, Costers del Segre, El Bierzo, Toro, even La Mancha (Milenium 99). The selection is mind boggling, as there are so many emerging wine regions in Spain for both heady reds and lovely whites (for whites, I love albariños from the Rias Baixas in Galicia).

We routinely bring 6-8 bottles back from every trip without any problem (or duty paid) at customs. We have a special wine box that we carry them in, and when we're asked and say the contents are wines, we're just waved on through at customs.

I suggest in both cities you start first with the enormous selection at La Vinia. Madrid's store was the first, then Bcn, then the French owners of La Vinia opened their huge flagship store off the Place de la Madelaine in Paris, now Europe's largest wine store (recent article in this month's Food and Wine mag.-1,500 square meters).

Lavinia in Madrid is located on Ortega & Gasset 16 in the upscale Barrio de Salamanca district (huge selection, decent prices) and the smaller Bcn store can be found on the Diagonal 605, on the way to the large El Corte Inglés on the upper Diagonal. Both shops are open from 10-9. See www.lavinia.es

Speaking of El Corte Inglés department stores, their supermarkets handle a wide selection of great wines from all regions at good prices. The pricier, collectors' items can be found in the store's El Club de Gourmet boutiques upstairs.

And don't forget the Aldeasa duty free shops in both airports. They've really improved their wine selections and some real bargains can often be found there. We wait until we reach the airport to add the last two bottles to our collection and can always find something we like at a very good price. We bought a '95 Reserva Chivite Coleccíon 125 from Navarra for less there than we paid in Pamplona.

And before your trip, go to the Wine from Spain forum of www.tienda.com and ask Gerry Dawes, the ultimate US based Spanish wine guru, to give you a small list of some of his favorites in your price range. The 2001s have been especially praised.

And as a comparison, also check the wine selection and prices at www.spanishtable.com
the online shop of Steve Winston's 3 "The Spanish Table" stores. Steve has the top Spanish wine selection in the US at his wonderful Seattle shop.
www.spanishtable.com

You will have no problem finding excellent wines in Spain. We often ordered the house red wines (vino tinto) on our recent trip. We enjoy a dry red wine. The Spanish Riojas were fabulous.

We purchased our wine in the grocery stores at El Corte Ingles, Spain's giant department store. Their supermarket is in the basement. In Barcelona, the El Corte Ingles store with the supermercado is right on Plaza Catalunya... there is another branch without the supermercado just off the plaza on Avenida Portal de l'Angel; in Madrid we shopped at one in the tony Salamanca district and there is a big Puerto del Sol branch. They have branches in Barcelona and Madrid. The wine we brought home was a Marques de Arienzo 2000 Crianza, a rioja. This was the vino tinto de la casa at more than one resturuant where we ate; although one resturaunt served a 1998 and the other a 1999.

You will quite easily be well under the 40 euro mark on your wine. For example, the wine we brought back was 7,40 Euros. Other's we bought and drank in Spain were 5,89; and two small bottles of Cava at 3,45 and 3.25.

If you are a true connoisseur, you might try, La Vinia as recommended in Maribel's Madrid file: (I'm cutting and pasting here): "La Vinia
(Ortega & Gassett #16, btwn Serrano and Claudio Coello). Every month they
have a special promotion on wines of a specific region. Has a huge selection of wine from all over the world plus cava. It was the largest wine store in Europe (with 4,000 selections) until they opened a brand new branch on Paris? Right Bank at Place de la Madelaine."

For Barcelona Maribel lists, and I quote again: "Wines:
?Vila Viniteca? (Carrer dels Agullers, 7 in El Borne, near the Santa María del Mar church) A wine lover?s paradise. 3,000 wines and liqueurs. Great selection of Priorat labels, such as Les Terrasses.
?La Vinia? on the Diagonal on the way to the big El Corte Inglés. Same owners as the huge new La Vinia on the Place de la Madelaine on Paris? Right Bank."

We ran out of time and never made to either of these places. El Corte Ingles served us well. I still can't believe how many Euros we left behind at El Corte Ingles.

How funny! Maribel, I thought you had already left for your 10 days in Spain, so I passed on some good recommendations from your Madrid and Barcelona files. I'll cut and paste your further recommendations into my files for a future trip.

You must be leaving for Spain soon. Have a wonderful time. And, I was so glad to read on another posting that your family was not bodily affected by last week's trajedy. I say "bodily" because such an act rips at the core of one's soul as one grieves for humanity.

Hi Sharon,
I'm at home packing today for the trip, but I did stop to read the Forum and am really enjoying your wonderfully detailed travel report! Keep it coming; it's just great. You were so fortunate to have been in Barcelona for the fiestas and to have witnessed all the parades and castellers. What fun it must have been!
Thanks for sharing your adventures with us.

Actually,

It's very easy to bring wine back into the States. The duty, if customs decides to charge it, is about $0.15/bottle.

Typically, I'll buy a wine shipper from a local air freight office for ~$10. I've always usee TNT Freight. They are usually found near any major international airport worldwide. Once it's packed securely, you can check the wine as baggage (fits well within airline weight/size restrictions).

The only problem that I have ever had is the amount of time it takes US Customs to decide that they are not going to charge any duty. My last trip I had 2 cases of wine from NZ and it took them 40 minutes. Good thing I didn't have a short connection.

I would second the above recommendations for El Corte and Lavinia. Also a thank you to Maribel for her files and tips for our Spain trip last November. We found that we could get a very nice botttle of red wine with all of our meals in Spain for about E10 which is unheard of here in the US. As for bringing wine back, it is easy as long as you do not mind having to carry it. I would however recommend that you check prices at home before you go. I bought back 2001 Numanthia only to find it at home for about the same price as in Spain. I am also not sure it is worth the trouble to bring back inexpensive wine. Capcanes for example makes some excellent reds for less than E10 but they are only $9 to $15 here in the US so I wonder whether it is worth the trouble to carry these types of wine home with you. I should also mention that due to the dollar devaluation that you might be able to find Spainish wines here in the US from 98 to 2000 priced cheaper than in Spain. When the dollar was stronger I found good deals in Italy and Germany and ocassionally in France. Did not find good deals in New Zealand or Australia although there were some wine there such as the Cloudy Bay Te Koko that we brought back simply because we did not think we could find it in the US. My last thought is to recommend that you taste the wine before you decide to bring some back with you. Best to know personally what you are buying and that you like it before dragging some of it home. Enjoy your trip!

Thank you everyone for your advise!! This is a such a wonderful forum.

MN

Hi Maribel, I just updated my trip report: http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...amp;dirtyBit=1

I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it. Your files and help enhanced our trip to Spain in so many ways. You were right there with us in Spirit and special guide everywhere we went. I can't thank you enough!