I’ll be relocating from Albuquerque to Santa Barbara (~900 miles) in about 6 weeks. I have about 12 cases of wine that need to be moved. Of course, this will be the peak of summer and any drive will be through the desert.
Any creative ideas on how to accomplish this move? A dedicated, temperature controlled shipper quoted $2.3k. However, just overnighting a dozen cases would run about half that cost provided a storage facility could receive and store the shipments until we arrive.
Are there any other ways to piggyback on a temperature controlled shipper? I know that wineries and retailers use these services in the summer.
Greg, if you decide to ship the cases you might try to contact Steve at Renegade Wine. They have wine storage, and he might be willing to work out a deal with you to receive and store the wine until you get settled. Also, I store my wine at Goleta Valley Self Storage on Overpass- I know someone recently moved out, so they might be worth a call as well.
As for Dennis’ comment, it’s still seems tricky to me, as that is 1.5-2 days of driving and heat would still have to be managed during stops. The high-desert areas could be manageable with luck, but coming down into the Mojave Desert would be a bear until he reached LA.
Welcome back to SB- get in touch sometime when you get back in town!
While I hesitate to ever agree with Dennis, he’s right. 12 cases don’t even need a van, could fit in a compact/midsize SUV. 1.5 to 2 days? I-40 in far west should be a (long) one day trip.
Pack cases together, cover with quilts. Take an 15min/30 min/hour break? I’d bet temp would not go up more than 5 degrees even in dessert.
If too much. night at a motel. Could time so not in desert. Even there it cools down a lot at night, but if you’re worried about theft maybe 15 minutes of schlepping in and again out.
If that’s too much effort, then check re shipping options
Well, yeah. Except I have a family to move as well and we’re going to do a little road trip on the way there.
Plus as Matt mentioned, managing the heat is the major obstacle. I could probably fit all of it in my Outback, but it could easily bake during a lunch stop or in the evening.
We moved the wine ourselves 5 years ago and had to contend with heat by day (Mojave, much of AZ) and freezing temps by night (Flagstaff). Not fun.
If you can find a wine storage place in both Albuquerque and Santa Barbara (winery, maybe?), you can use Advantage refrigerated trucks. The wines will have to be wrapped on a pallet and you’ll need either a loading dock or forklift at both locations. They run about $400 per pallet.
900 miles? That’s 15 hours at a mere 60 mph of constant speed. If you factor in a few restroom / food stops, it won’t be much longer because the speed limit has to be higher than that on the open road. My wife and I left NJ near the Walt Whitman Bridge at 4:30 AM (flight cancelled due to ice) and were in St Cloud, FL by 11:30 that night - and that included a 2.5 hour stop in Jacksonville to meet friends for dinner around 6:30. That’s 1015 miles which ended up being just over 14 hours of actual driving.
Might be worth paying to be a subscriber just to make that my signature.
Why not just ship them to a friend in that area now, via ground, while its cool? And pick them up after you get settled in? Are these irreplaceable/sentimental rarities?
As others have said, I’d probably drive it up. If you can’t do it on the day you move family, which is understandable, I’d make another trip.
As far as piggybacking on a refrigerated truck, unless you know somebody, you’re talking about moving your personal wine on a commercial carrier. There are legal implications for the shipper and different insurance reqs and most probably won’t move your stuff unless you’re a good friend or something. But 12 cases isn’t that much. It’s around $40 to ship a case, so if you can find a storage place to accept them for you, you’d be OK. I’d even give you all the shippers I just got if you were close. Just threw two in the dumpster today and have six more.
Ground shipping goes through the Mojave. That window closed about 4-6 weeks back, unfortunately.
The separate trip idea is looking more appealing. I could pull it off on a long weekend. I do have shippers, my car is big enough, and it could be planned in advance of the full move.
Dennis, your NJ to FL drive in a day is an outlier, but I will say that I respect your stamina behind the wheel. That also, I would consider a 1.5-2 day trip!
Thread drift for sure…perhaps worthy of a new post…longest day trip…solo or tandem. We did nine hours last year, which is my limit…I get bored off my mind.
It’s a hike but I used to do 620 mile from NYC to Detroit pretty regularly and a quarter of that time was getting out of NYC and east New Jersey. It would take anywhere from 9 to 12 hours, depending on traffic and snow. So it wasn’t all that bad.
The cities we’re talking about here are farther, but the time to travel is roughly similar and you can really fly on a good part of the route. Bring some books on tape, or a good companion, and it’s OK.
I think it’s still safe to ship now, particularly next week will be relatively mild across the southwest
But otherwise, all the other options (frankly, even shipping for 12 cases) are pretty expensive. Gas and car expenses for a two-way road trip or rental far outweigh 2-day shipping for 12 cases.
You could pack the wines, store them locally until winter, then have them shipped to you. Or if there is a chance you’ll be flying back to ABQ once or twice, check a couple of cases each time on return.
I’ve done that drive a few times (Los Alamos to San Diego), it’s no easy thing without an overnight somewhere.
I went through something similar years ago when I relocated from Chicago to Southern Louisiana and had to move 25 cases. The quotes I got for refrigerated shipping were like $5k.
I rented an SUV, packed everything in styro, loaded up, and drove down. This was in mid-July, so heat was a bit of a concern for me as well. No issues whatsoever though since the wine was in styro. I get the concerns may be different for you since a desert was involved.
Drive them yourself during the night with the A/C on full blast. If you need to make 2 days for the trip (no reason you couldn’t do this in 1 day if motivated), drive at night with A/C ON, check in to motel in the morning, sleep until night (yes, pay 2 nights if you have to), begin drive to the Golden State then you are there. Go back to fetch wife and kids.
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