How much should I pay to get decent wine?
It’s a question we’re asked all too frequently and for good reason, especially given the current economic situation in the country and the impending cost of living crisis: how much should I pay to get a decent bottle of wine?
We’re no fools and are fully aware that you can find bottles of wine – bearing in mind these will have been industrially produced in eye watering numbers – for around five pounds in any supermarket here in the UK. But let’s start by breaking down the costs involved in putting a bottle of wine on the shelf in the UK and see if we can work out the approximate real value of the liquid in the bottle.
Every bottle of wine sold in UK is subject to 20% VAT, so when you extract VAT from a £5 bottle, the figure you arrive at is £4.17.
Next, Excise Duty: every bottle of wine sold in the UK is subject (at time of writing) to £2.23 Excise Duty, which brings the figure down to £1.94. At this point, we’d like to make clear that this Excise Duty figure is a fixed amount irrespective of the cost or alcohol content of the wine, be it a bottle selling for £5 or £500.
Then we have to allow for ‘dry goods’ – the bottle, closure, label, packaging and transport – all of which can be controlled to some extent by economies of scale, but all adds up to a significant amount per bottle.
Research by several different bodies puts the actual cost of 75cl of wine in that £5 bottle to have a value of under 50p.
If you, as a consumer, trade up to £10 per bottle, the value of the wine is approximately £3 – so six times the value as in a £5 bottle. And if you edge towards the £20 per bottle figure, then the value of your wine is around £7 – £8 mark.
If we drill down a little deeper, as the dry goods element keeps on increasing in cost at a frightening pace, I will venture – and this is my personal opinion – that to maximise pleasure, and real value for money, perhaps £15 – £20 is the sweet spot.
At this level you will, more than likely, be supporting small, family-owned vineyards who devote all their energies and efforts in to providing the very best wine they can. These are smaller amounts, whilst truly caring about their local environment; not least as it is where they live and it is what provides their livelihood!
There are of course some interesting and very tasty wines with a bit of character that don’t cost £15 – £20 but, the way things are just now with fuel and inflation costs, no matter what the slick marketers tell you, these soon disappear as the wiggle room on the fixed costs starts to be squeezed.
“Wine” as a descriptive term covers a multitude of sins. Millions and millions of bottles of “wine” are sold, predominantly at the large grocers, which have been made on an industrial scale. There is nothing wrong with that, if all you are after is a fruity, slightly confected glass of alcohol, fair play, go for it.
However, if you are intrigued by what I will call “real wine” – that is to say wine from a small farm or vineyard, crafted by a passionate person or family, from a place that the grapes express a sense of individuality from and has character and depth of flavour – then you need to consider buying your real wine from an independent, fervent and knowledgeable wine specialist.
Believe me, these two versions of wine really are a million miles apart.
The UK is acknowledged as having the most diverse and interesting wine selections on sale, more than any other country in the world, so make the most of it!
Go explore, get into your local wine merchant for a more enriching and enlightening experience; discover why there are those of us who wax lyrical (given the chance) about the commitment, the heritage and the passion of these smaller independent winemakers, whose craft you can actually taste in each glass.
Chris Leather, Director, Stainton Wines