I was watching a TV programme called the 'Farmers' Country Showdown', about a small family owned vineyard. The programme was about them packing up their van, and selling at a Farmer's Market (somewhere in England).
When it came to their selling, I was astounded to see that their bottles of both white and red wine cost around £15 per bottle. WHY ON EARTH does it cost so much? I would be wanting a good Chateau bottled Margaux at that price.
In France I tend to buy my everyday wine in boxes. The wine keeps well, I have no glass bottles to recycle, and the wine itself is excellent. The box above, which is my regular choice, costs just 10 Euros (£7.50) for FIVE LITRES. Compare that to an English wine which costs £15 for 75 cls. The difference is crazy.
Now, I don't know if this has something to do with UK taxes on alcohol, or if those people were simply overpricing their wine, but something isn't right here. How can home produced wine cost about three times the amount of imported!
England is a good country for wine growing, and if our prices came down a bit I'm sure more vines would be planted. As with all agricultural processes, the initial outlay for equipment is high but the returns are good. There is so much land lying fallow in the UK that this could easily become a major crop in the future. But only if the final result ended-up in our supermarkets at around £5 per bottle.
Yesterday was my shopping day, and I made a point of looking for English wines. Sadly I didn't find one! There were wines from all around the world, but nothing from around the corner. Maybe Sainsbury's are simply being wise, and not stocking local wine that costs THREE TIMES the price of a good Aussie or Argentinian wine. It simply wouldn't sell.
I don't know what's going on here, but whatever it is it needs to change.
Let's leave aside that England is expensive full stop. Why is English wine so expensive?
ReplyDeleteDear Cro, you clearly slept through your economy lessons. Supply, demand, geography, yield, labour, cost of land.
Thank your lucky stars you didn't become a farmer [in England], never mind a wine grower. You'd be drinking dregs. If that.
U
If Australian wine can be shipped half way around the world, and cost around £5 in the shops, why can't English wine come from a few miles away and cost the same? Those were the 'Economy Lessons' I attended.
DeleteMost Australian wines do NOT come from small family owned vineyards. For a small holding, there are the same costs for planting growing nurturing harvesting and all of that before they begin making the wine which is time consuming also. They need to make at least a little profit to help with the cost of next years growing harvesting etc, possibly even replacing some vines that didn't make it through the winter. A huge company run business can more easily absorb those costs.
DeleteIn the area where I live there are many small wineries. Sometimes I buy wine when there are guests, the simplest wine here costs twice as much as yours.
ReplyDeleteI suspect most of it is TAX.
DeleteTax and playing to and ripping off a market.
ReplyDeleteIs imported wine not subject to the same level of taxation?
DeleteEconomy of scale, plus tax. Quite simple.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with the 'scale' idea. In France I know many very small vineyards who make a good income from their wine, and they charge very little.
DeleteDream on. Maybe in 100 years the climate may change enough to make England "a good country for wine growing" but we are nowhere near there yet. A few new wine growers emerge each year and struggle along.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of award-winning vineyards down here. It's just the pricing that puts people off buying it.
DeleteCro, you say "pricing puts people off buying it". I know plenty of people who are prepared and happy to pay the price, realizing that there is a price. Of course, one shops to the size of one's purse. However the notion that food [and wine] should be cheap is false economy. After all, farmers (ask Rachel) need to eat too. By way of example, no not virtue signalling or money, I fork out for organic meat. You know, the happy chicken, the happy pig foraging in the woods; you name it. Time intensive, labour intensive for the farmer. I pay what's due, what's fair.
DeleteWhich reminds me since you an artiste: One of the curses, nay blessings, of my life that both within family and friends I am surrounded/inundated with the creative. There are two types of, say, painters (who actually live off their art): Those who paint and throw their stuff on the market, accept whatever is offered. Happy. The other type? The others have missed their true vocation: Accountancy. With a spreadsheet. Counting the hours it takes them to create a masterpiece. Costing their hours. Costing the gallery's take (60 %) before putting the price tag on. Doesn't stop people paying tens of thousands and then some.
Am lost in train of thought, so make of the above what you will. And do remember, the price of flour has gone up so the price of PROPER bread takes some sharp intake of breath. Still, see above, bakers need to eat too. And we, the clientele of whatever craft, should be prepared (and happy) to pay the price. If all else fails there is always DIY. Good luck.
End of lesson (it is Sunday),
U
Well said U
DeleteI still think that home-produced food should be cheaper than imported. I can still buy an NZ Leg of Lamb for half the price of a local one. It doesn't encourage folk to buy locally grown.
DeleteI found this answer to your question on a website called "The English Vine":-
ReplyDeleteAnyone who's been to a wine shop knows that English wine is not cheap. But why is that? After all, grapes are grapes, right? The answer, it turns out, has to do with both history and climate.
Historically, England was not known for producing great wines. In fact, English wine was often ridiculed by our continental neighbours. This began to change in the late 20th century as English winemakers began to experiment with new grape varieties and production techniques. British climate proved to be ideal for English vineyards growing certain types of grapes, such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Despite this, English wine production and yield still doesn't compare to other major wine regions abroad. On top of this, wine production can also be time-consuming and labour intensive as grapes have to be picked by hand.
When the Romans were with us they grew white wine around the South Downs which they exported back to Rome. So the activity has ben around for a while.
DeleteSome excellent English wine is produced in East Yorkshire on the chalky wolds but the acreage of the vineyard is quite small compared with vineyards I have seen in Argentina and Hungary for example.
DeleteIn the UK there is Excise Duty and VAT on each bottle of wine which will account for about a fiver. After that there is the logistics of getting the wine to the retailer and all that that involves plus the retailer at the end of the day will want to make a small profit on each bottle sold. The amount of excise duty depends on alcohol level and goes up with the alcohol level which may have missed your radar and is related to health and trying to get Brits to stop drinking so much. These taxes apply to whether the wine is produced here or abroad.
ReplyDeleteI understand all that, but how is it that a wine from Argentina or Peru can be sold for under a fiver? Do they have special rates of tax, whereas our producers pay more?
DeleteYou will not find any wines of 12% alcohol or higher for under a fiver. The excise duty and VAT is the same for imports or home produced. Cheap wines in the UK are a thing of the past. The only wines in a cheaper category are of low alcohol percentage.
ReplyDeleteIn Lidl,
DeleteCimarosa Chilean Sauvignon Blanc
abv:12.5%
£4.79
There's Aussie wine in Sainsbury's for under £5.
DeleteThey must be loss leaders!
DeleteThe wines are not lost leaders. The fault in the logic is to say that there is £5 of VAT and duty on a bottle of 12% wine
DeleteIt was a joke. See exclamation mark. Loss leaders.
DeleteYou are so predictable in your loitering around. Where I am you are quick to follow. You can't resist it. Happy days Huw. VAT and Excise Duty come to roughly a fiver, give or take, it isn't a figure etched in stone.
DeleteI miss buying our wine from the French market - pumped straight out of the back of the seller's van into our plastic bottles for a couple of Euros!
ReplyDeleteA man from Ch de Callassou used to go to V du Pd market and sell 'loose'.
DeleteI am looking forward to a couple of weeks of good wine at bargain prices this spring.
ReplyDeleteMe too, but it doesn't make me drink more than I do now.
DeleteI buy my wine from Tesco at £4.25 per bottle. It is 13% vol and is called Australia Taparoo valley Merlot. I really like it as well as it being great value. They also do a shiraz version at the same price which is also good.
ReplyDeleteI must visit Tesco; I'm a shareholder so I ought to shop there.
DeleteSomebody is being undercut by Tesco as they do with all produces be it strawberries, cabbages, apples or wine. The govt try to improve the health of the nation and the supermarkets thwart that too.
DeleteThat English wine is terribly expensive. In Greece we pay about as much as you do in France for good wine in a box or in a plastic bottle. It's very drinkable
ReplyDeleteExactly!
DeleteWell, I've just calculated that the equivalent of £15 per 75cl bottle is £1,000 for 5 litres (£15 divided by 75 x 5,000). Am I wrong?
ReplyDeleteI hope so!
DeleteYes. I'm x10 out because bottles are cl not ml. But £15 a bottle is still the equivalent of £100 for 5 litres.
DeleteYou need to be rich to drink English wine in England, but any Francois, Pierre, or Yves, can drink French wine in France, and not feel the cost.
DeleteA large box of wine like you show costs around $24 in the US and it is not the best quality. Some grocery stores carry wine at all price points. Costco has one of the best selections, ranging from $100+ to $-10. It seems someone in the supply chain is taking big profits selling wine in the UK.
ReplyDeleteEither that or they're not selling it. I imagine the former.
DeleteI don't usually agree with Ursula and Rachel but they both make good points today.
ReplyDelete