How to legally send Spanish wine and Murcian cured meats to family in Europe

You've settled on the gift: a couple of bottles of wine from Jumilla or Bullas, some fine Murcian cured meat, a few tins of local produce. And you've settled on who it's for: your son working in Germany, your sister in France, those Belgian friends who fell in love with the food here last summer. What you're less sure about is how to send Spanish wine to Europe without the whole thing ending badly: bottles smashed halfway there, a parcel held up who knows where, or a shipping charge that costs more than the gift itself.

It's a perfectly understandable worry. Glass is fragile, food products raise all sorts of questions ("will it get stopped at the border?", "do I need any paperwork?"), and asking certain companies for a quote turns into a chain of emails where the price only shows up at the end, inflated with surcharges nobody had mentioned. We see the result all the time: the gift stays in the cupboard and the family goes without their little piece of Murcia.

Sending Spanish wine to Europe: no customs within the EU

Let's start by getting rid of the biggest fear. If the destination is in the European Union, your parcel travels within the single market, and that means there are no customs: from Spain to Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands or any other EU country, your shipment moves with no customs formalities and no holds at the border. That wine and that cured meat arrive just as a parcel would travel from Murcia to Madrid.

At Logística Mazarrón we are the official GLS agency in Puerto de Mazarrón, and we move your parcels across the GLS Europe network, one of the most robust parcel networks on the continent. Your shipment also travels with transport insurance, so you don't have to keep your fingers crossed.

How it works, step by step

We've designed the process so you don't have to leave home or sign up anywhere:

1. Work out your price online in 30 seconds. Enter the weight, dimensions and origin-destination in the calculator and you get a fixed price with VAT included. Parcel shipments start from 9 € and the price is guaranteed for 48 hours.
2. Book and pay online. You receive the shipping label by email straight away; all you have to do is print it and stick it on the box.
3. The GLS courier collects from your door, anywhere in Spain; and if you'd rather, you can also drop the parcel off yourself at a GLS collection point or at our agency. No queues, no trips.
4. Track your shipment in real time until your family has it in their hands.

Do keep in mind the one important limit: the maximum weight is 30 kg per parcel. If you're putting together a large batch of products, it's better to split it across two boxes than to force everything into one.

How to pack bottles and cured meat so they arrive intact

Most of the success of this kind of shipment comes down to the packaging. Take note:

• Wrap each bottle separately with several layers of bubble wrap, paying particular attention to the neck, which is the most fragile part.
• Keep the bottles from touching each other or the walls of the box: use cardboard dividers or fill the gaps with scrunched-up paper or more bubble wrap.
• Use a double-wall cardboard box, new or in very good condition. A softened box protects nothing.
• Vacuum-pack the cured meat where you can and put it inside a well-sealed bag: that way it travels protected, keeps its qualities and doesn't taint the rest of the contents.
• Fill every gap. If you shake the box and something moves inside, it isn't ready yet.
• Tape it in an H shape, covering all the seams of the box with good-quality packing tape.

Common mistakes worth avoiding

• Reusing a thin or damaged shopping box to carry glass.
• Guessing the weight "by eye". Weigh and measure the box once it's closed: that way the calculator's price will be spot on, with no surprises when you book.
• Putting loose bottles in among the clothes or the cured meat, trusting that "they're packed in tight".
• Cutting it fine with dates. If the parcel is for a birthday or a celebration, send it with time to spare and follow the tracking at your leisure.
• Paying over the odds for not checking the price first. With a fixed VAT-inclusive price from the very start, you know exactly what it costs before you pay.

Questions about your particular case? We'll help you in person, in Spanish and English, at Av. Dr. Meca 107, local 2, Puerto de Mazarrón (Mon-Fri 9:30-13:30 and 16:30-19:00) or on +34 910 80 62 29. And if you've already made up your mind, you don't even need to call: work out your price, print the label and let the taste of Murcia cross Europe with our parcel service.