Personally I don’t follow fashion or trends but I consider myself  ‘normal’. I’m sat at my desk this morning with the door open, wearing a fleece top for warmth – which happens to be embroidered with ‘Italy v Wales 2001′. Is it really that long since I bought any new clothes? Now I come to think of it, I’ve only been into a clothes shop twice in the last ten years! But I know what I like, and that’s all I buy. I’m not controlled by advertisers with glossy magazine and TV ads, trying to part me from my money. I’ve never watched ‘Strictly Dancing’ or the ‘X Factor’. I really am out of fashion.

However, these people who tell us how to live our lives are partly responsible for one of the biggest sins of the 21st century – ‘Anything but Chardonnay’ – they’ve made Chardonnay unfashionable. Of course it’s only the feeble minded who let themselves be controlled by the media, but this still has a serious affect on wine sales in restaurants, hotels and bars, which filters back up the chain all the way to the producers. 

Wine and fashion should not mix! Fashion is all about getting weak people to part with their money. I’ve watched teenage lads wearing woolly hats in 25 degrees this summer, with baggy jeans hanging around their knees – at least that might keep them cool. All the teenage girls look like they’re auditioning for the next Star Wars film, with knee length furry boots, baggy white tops and a 10″ wide belt made from roofing felt, tucked underneath the boobs which serves no apparent purpose whatsoever. Would you take advice on which wines to drink from the people responsible for this?

I suppose the probem began when celebrities began naming their children after grapes. There are over 1000 different grape varieties so what’s the odds of picking Chardonnay first? What’s next? Verdelho? Gewurztraminer? Probably ‘Albarino’  as it’s the latest fashionable grape along with ‘Gruner Veltliner’ but that’s hardly a name for a pretty girl!

The downside of all this of course is that it’s had a negative effect on Chardonnay sales. We have some ‘fashion conscious’ friends who will simply refuse to order Chardonnay if we’re out for a meal, although they love Chablis! Personally I love a good Chardonnay, it makes some of the best white wines in the world. A lot of people are missing out on the joys of a good wine because they listen to the media. Pinot Grigio has benefitted of course, as it’s star has risen as Chardonnay’s has fallen. Our friends will automatically order the first Pinot Grigio they see on a menu, and this can be a big mistake. Chardonnay is generally a rich, full wine, often buttery with some oak. Pinot Grigio can be delicious if you find a good one, (such as Santa Margharita) but there’s a vast amount of inferior Pinot flooding the market, weak and insipid, and often not from Italy despite having an Italian name! Watch out for names like ‘Don Luigi Pinot Grigio’ and such like – closer inspection is likely to reveal that it actually comes from somewhere such as Hungary or Croatia, and very often it doesn’t even contain any Pinot Grigio, just cheaper grapes!

For those of us who may have strayed from the path and forgotten just how nice a good Chardonnay can be, here are a couple of recommendations. Try these wines - Morton Estates White Label Chardonnay & R H Philips Toasted Head Chardonnay, and I’d like to bet you’ll be proud to fly in the face of fashion and choose your wines for the right reasons – taste, quality and value. And let the crowd with the woolly hat and baggy jeans happily fritter away their hard earned cash on over priced Eastern European Garganega!

Well now the summer’s over, for many of us the next thing to look forward to is good old Christmas. It’s not so far away, and for many self employed people and businesses this is the time when they start looking around for Christmas gifts for staff, good customers and suppliers. Also it’s a time of over indulgence on rich food and booze for all of us, so it’s a bumper time for wine sales. This year more than ever people are looking for value for money, and many of the businesses will be looking to tighten their belts – metaphorically – and cut their expenditure. The internet is full of potential suppliers so where do you start?

You can search for terms such as christmas wine hampers, christmas wine gifts, wine for christmas etc, but there are literally millions of websites that Google will pick up, so it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack. The simple answer is to start with just one quality wine merchant such as www.goodwineonline.co.uk then decide what you want to buy.

They offer  a varied selection of award winning wines from all over the world, all at unbeatable prices – they are the cheapest UK retailer for virtually every wine they sell. And as the name suggests they only sell GOOD wine, they don’t try to palm you off with some inferior wine they’re making a killing on, so you know you’re getting a good product and value for money.

So now you’ve got the merchant sorted it’s time to choose your wines.

The vast majority of us enjoy wine but wouldn’t profess to being an expert on the subject. So how do we select a wine that won’t overpower the turkey? Or disappoint with the christmas pud? Well it’s been made easy at goodwineonline as they’ve put together some specific premixed cases of 6 bottles to accompany the xmas dinner. There’s also a ready made section on quality wine to give as gifts, from premixed cases to exclusive single bottles of limited production wines – again all great quality with serious prestige.  However, back to the xmas dinner, if you’re more adventurous and want to select your own wines here’s a guide to what to look for.

Welcome drink for your guests

When your friends and family pop round it’s nice to enjoy a glass of something pre dinner. The good news here is that sparkling wines have improved dramatically in quality over the last ten years, and they suit this purpose beautifully. Prosecco is now very fashionable and a good one can be delicious – make sure you opt for one from the ‘Valdobbiadene’ region as these are the best. But there are great sparkling wines available from new world countries too. Personally I’d recommend the Morton Estate Sec from New Zealand – not only is it delicious but it looks great too and at less than £10 it won’t break the bank.

Starter

This depends on what you’re having as an entree. We always start with the classic prawn cocktail and this requires a flavoursome white with a dry finish to cut through the sauce and refresh the palate. A good Sauvignon Blanc is the obvious answer, but there are other alternatives such as a good Torrontes from Argentina.

Turkey

Well some people will insist on white but the majority of people will opt for red here – me included. You can in fact go for quite a powerful red without overpowering the bird. An oaked Pinot Noir, a good Rioja – but not a Reserva or Grand Reserva as these will likely be too heavy – or possibly a good Italian blend or lightly oaked red as these are usually great with food. I usually go for a good new world Bordeaux blend, packed with flavour but also smooth. ‘Bordeaux blends’ tend to be great wines so long as you don’t have one that actually comes from Bordeaux! Claret tends to be pretty poor in comparison because the French struggle with the weather - and a good one will double the cost of Christmas! As for a white with turkey? I’d go for an oaked Chardonnay, with plenty of body and quite strong flavours. A light wine like Pinot Grigio simply wouldn’t have enough flavour to get noticed amongst the myriad of other flavours on the plate.

Dessert

Whether you’re having Christmas pud, trifle or just a mince pie, a dessert wine can really make the meal feel special. Now we’ve all been drinking port for years, and frankly it can be a bit too heavy for some people. But good dessert wine is now widely available from many regions and at pretty keen prices too. You no longer need to fork out a small fortune for a cloying sauternes, there are ‘Late Harvest’ examples of many different grapes available which can be superb and won’t break the bank.

The good old British wine drinking public are growing tired of being either ripped off by ‘trusted high street names’ overcharging, or fobbed off with supermarkets and multiple retailers duping them into buying inferior wines by advertising them as allegedly half price deals. Naturally we all believe their spin when we see a wine reduced from £10 to £5 – until we taste it! That’s when we realise it wasn’t worth £5 in the first place. But this isn’t just happening occassionally, it’s standard practice for the majority of wine sales in the UK!

Now many established high street names are jumping on the band wagon and offering wines in their direct mail catalogues – take NEXT for example. An established and respected high street retailer. They hope we’ll think ‘oh, I’ll just add a case of wine to my order for a new pair of jeans’ and no doubt some of us will – until we see the prices! A few minutes shopping around on Google will quickly reveal that we’re paying a hefty premium for the privilege. For example NEXT are offering the following:

Hugh Hamilton ‘The Villain’ Cabernet Sauvignon Mclaren Vale 2006 at £16.95 per bottle, generously reduced to £15.26 when you buy three. Simply ‘Google’ Hugh Hamilton Cabernet Sauvignon and in 30 seconds you’ll discover www.goodwineonline.co.uk offer it for £12.49 for a single bottle!

NEXT are also offering the Hugh Hamilton ‘The Rascal’ Shiraz Mclaren Vale 2006 for £15.95 on a ‘buy six get one free’ deal which gives a net price of £13.67. Again www.goodwineonline.co.uk offer a single bottle for £12.49. Do these big companies honestly believe we’re all stupid?

Personally I’m going to ask goodwineonline to start supplying my clothes! The truth is, these companies are not selling wines – they just appear to be! In reality this is a collaboration between NEXT and Lebonvin.co.uk , a slightly pricey internet wine merchant. NEXT have simply duplicated lebonvin’s portfolio onto their own website, and no doubt all orders will simply be passed to Lebonvin to fulfill, with a nice little commission paid to NEXT. Is this NEXT offering their customers an extra service? Or is it NEXT exploiting their customers for extra profit?

Personally I’d recommend giving them both a miss and ‘Googling’ the wine you’re after to find it somewhere at a decent price,

This is a hot topic at the moment as more and more people are investigating the effects the sulphites in a bottle of wine have on them. I would say the issue is being deliberately clouded by the government and the big players in the industry, although I’m sure they would say they’re ‘doing all they can to help but it’s complicated’.

Basically there are two major points to make. The first is that sulphites occur in all wines and there is no such thing as a genuine sulphite free wine.

The second point is that there’s a huge difference between minimal amounts of naturally occurring sulphites as found in all wines, and the large amounts of additional sulphites added to inferior wines as a preservative.

However there’s no legislation to make the producers state the amount of sulphite a wine contains, so the wine consumer cannot tell from the label and as a result is buying the wrong wine. This is because it’s a multi billion pound industry and a huge earner for the UK government too. If wine had the same regulations applied to it as food currently does, there would be up to 40 different additives listed on the back labels of some of the major brands! The excuse for not doing so? ‘It’s complicated’ – ‘fair enough’ say the UK government and the EU which consists of several of the biggest wine producing countries in the world.

How can you tell if a wine contains added sulphites?

Quite simply, if you apply a bit of common sense you can avoid anything obviously heavy on sulphites. Firstly I’ll explain the problem, then give you the solution. Wine was traditionally made locally all over the world in small wineries, often no bigger than a shed or an outbuilding, by someone who owned a field planted with vines. Sulphites occur naturally in tiny quantities in grape skins and are also produced in small quantities during fermentation. So all wine contains a small amount of sulphites.

Now with globalisation, wine production has progressed onto a massive scale, made in sterile factories. This is BIG business. The big corporations need huge quantities of grapes, and driven by price these tend to be very poor quality. They’re then fermented and turned into poor quality wine. Up to 40 different chemicals and preservatives are then added to hold the wine together till it can get to market. Here the big companies are very clever – they spend next to nothing producing the wine but spend millions on marketing, producing an internationally recognised brand. Some of these wines actually consist of more chemical solution than grape juice!

Think about price for a moment. Our Chancellor charges £1.65 (excise duty and customs tax) on any wine commercially imported into the uk – plus vat on top of this, so a wine selling for £3.99 in a supermarket breaks down something like this:

£0.52 vat

£1.65 excise duty

£0.30 overseas transport

£0.30 packaging and labelling

£0.50 producer’s margin

£0.50 supermarket margin

£3.77 total cost leaving £0.22 for production of the wine! So how good do you expect that wine to be? I would expect it to be over 50% chemicals at this price!

Unfortunately as our Chancellor has increased excise duty by £0.36 per bottle of still wine under 15% abv (more on wines above this and on sparkling wines) in the last 18 months, and as the pound has weakened severely, the price of wine has rocketed. It used to be 3 for £10 on poor quality wine in the supermarket, and £6 a bottle for something reasonable. These price points have moved dramatically and it’s now difficult to find a good wine below £8 or so. And if you pay £5 per bottle in the supermarket you’re likely to get very poor, over chemicalled wine.

Basically, if you’re looking for decent quality wine low in chemicals avoid the supermarkets and multiple retailers. Avoid ALL big brands as advertised on TV. Not even the most successful family producers can afford this kind of advertising – think about it, it’s basic economics - every pound spent on advertising is a pound not spent on production! Also be prepared to spend around £8 per bottle – if money’s tight maybe reduce the quantity for better quality?

Where do I find good wine low in sulphites at the right price?

Thankfully there are many family owned producers still making excellent quality wines. It’s best to look for something from a smaller family owned winery with a good reputation who make their wines with pride. There are several good independent wine merchants out there who retail this kind of wine, and now thanks to the interweb it’s readily available to buy nationwide.

www.goodwineonline.co.uk specialise in award winning, low sulphite wines from all the major wine producing countries. As Jane suffers from a sulphite intolerance, they only sell good wines that they’re prepared to drink themselves! (there aren’t many wine merchants out there who can say that). They import some excellent wines from small, boutique family owned vineyards with the emphasis firmly on quality. They’re also extremely keen on price and are the cheapest UK retailer for virtually every wine they sell, so you really can’t go wrong. Add to that ‘next working day delivery’ and a clean and clear website with easy to understand genuine tasting notes (not just the text off the back label), and it’s easy to see why this business is booming in these uncertain economic times.

This debate seems to be never ending and is still a hot topic in the wine trade today. The cork closure system is supported by predominantly the old world wine producers, based more on tradition than any real merit. Screwcap closure is perceived by many of these people to cheapen the product in the bottle.  However, new world producers who are more accepting of change and progress generally favour the screwcap.

Old school wine buffs like to have the cork pulled by the waiter at the table with an audible pop, and admittedly that is a pleasant sound. The whole performance loses a little dramatic effect when the waiter simply cracks the seal on a screwcap! But, let’s be honest, this about the wine not the performance and ceremony, and here screwcap wins the argument outright.

There are two main problems caused by cork closure. The first is cork taint which figures suggest can affect as many as 1 in 10 bottles! Have you ever had a bottle where you know the wine’s good because you’ve had it before? But this time there’s something not quite right but you can’t put your finger on it. It tastes a little bitter or the fruit’s not quite showing through. This is cork taint. The wine’s not fully oxidised, just not quite as good as it should be.

The other problem is oxidation. This is caused by air (oxygen) getting into the bottle and reacting with the wine. Corks are normally inserted into bottles under pressure to give as tight a fit as possible. However, it’s virtually impossible to achieve a perfect fit between a cork and a glass bottle. In some cases, when air enters the bottle, the wine oxidises and develops a pungent smell and an unpleasant taste. It’s then undrinkable, unless of course you’re used to the mass produced popular brands, then you probably wouldn’t notice the difference!

Screwcap doesn’t have either of these problems. Virtually every bottle arrives at the table in perfect condition, so it makes perfect sense to seal every wine with a screwcap. In new world wine producing countries this method of closure is accepted, even on the very best wines. And logically it should be used on the best wines as a priority. It’s the general perception of the wine consumers which needs to alter, through education and information. The major problem here is the damage has already been done by the big brands. As screwcap costs less than cork, the major brands have always used screwcap on their cheap and nasty wines, and this has rubbed off and tarnished the image of screwcap, so people automatically associate it with poor wine.

To dispel this association we need more quality wine  sealed with screwcaps, but until the consumer has faith that some screwcap wines can be good, the old school producers of good wines will stick to cork - and a percentage of their wines will still turn out to be tainted or oxidised by the time they are consumed! If you have a sensible solution to this conundrum please write in! Personally, I’m delighted to drink screwcap wine. It’s always in top condition and the bottle can be resealed for a couple of days if necessary to keep the wine drinkable for longer.

With the recent sunshine and warm weather, I’ve found myself, against all the laws of probability, drinking sparkling wine!

Now I remember sparkling wine twenty years ago when it was all highly acidic cheap Cava, unless you could afford a second mortgage to splash out on a bottle of genuine Champagne – and I don’t mean the frankly awful mass produced brands like Moet which is basically a sugar solution with a hint of grape dipped in. These were the days of Cava or Asti, and not much else for the working man, which helps explain why sparkling wine was symbolically purchased for a celebration or present, as nobody had any real interest in actually drinking it!

Producers of quality wines have consistently been baffled as to why their sparkling wines just wouldn’t sell in the UK. Twenty years ago the UK wine consumer was not prepared to pay a premium for such a poor product, and unfortunately that image has stuck. Although we wine merchants know the quality of these wines has improved dramatically, it’s now the reputation of these wines and the perception of the UK wine lover the producers have to work on.

In the last few years there’s been a revolution in quality wine production the world over, due to advancements in technology such as irrigation systems and temperature controlled fermentation. Good wine is now being made everywhere as the producers can now control (to a degree at least) the unpredictable weather and it’s affects on their crops. It’s only the giant corporations mass producing cheap, heavilly chemicalled ‘wines’ that keeps the quality so low in the supermarkets and multiple retailers. Get away from these mass brands and it’s actually getting harder to find bad wines.

So I started my new exploration of sparkling wines with Prosecco which can be fantastic if you get a good one. There are poor quality mass produced ones, high in sulphites, out there, but if you go for one from a reputable producer (and don’t just buy the cheapest) you should be in for a treat. Prosecco is produced in various areas of Northern Italy but Valdobbiadene is the premier DOC making the best wines. They tend to have good fruit flavour, fine mousse and superbly balanced acidity with a dry finish, making them delicious as an aperitif, rather than just as a celebration wine. Now, Iv’e been drinking these sat in the sun in the early evening and I’ve loved it. I never really considered this part of the day for drinking wine – I’d normally have a red with an evening meal, or a white if I was having delicate seafood, but have a red on a hot sunny afternoon? Not for me. So a dry white? Again I want something light and refreshing and this is where Prosecco fits the bill. But I’ve also rediscovered Prosecco ‘Frizzante’ (as opposed to the usual ‘Spumante’). This is semi sparkling and just as lovely and full flavoured, but even lighter for afternoon sipping. These tend to come with a cork top which still needs a corkscrew but goes off with a pop, a sort of half and half sparkling wine. This style of wine is big in Northern Italy but I wondered where it would fit in the UK market as sparkling wines are seen as a celebration drink. The answer is as an afternnon tipple or with a light lunch, or as an aperitif in the evening before moving onto a bigger wine with the meal. I strongly recommend you give it a try.

Now I’m also a huge fan of Morton Estate’s sparkling wines from New Zealand. Morton are one of New Zealand’s very best wine producers and are Chardonnay and Pinot Noir experts, and they also grow the third Champagne grape – Pinot Meunier, as found in their Morton Methode Traditionelle Black Label Vintage 2000, which is quite simply exquisite. I’m now working my way through the best from South Africa and Argentina too.

Forget the image of Sparkling Wine from the 1990’s and give it another try. It really can be a delight and is much better and much cheaper than the popular branded Champagnes!

Well it’s about time I wrote about something other than government inflicted price rises, so here is another financially driven pain in the neck, the wine buying public have to contend with. The emergence of ‘Arthur Daley’ characters looking to make a quick buck by selling wine online.

Established wine merchants have premises, staff and a relationship with their suppliers built on trust ensuring the wine is genuinely what it says on the label, and has been transported and stored correctly. Many have opened an ecommerce website over recent years to make their wines more widely available, which means the public get more choice and better value for money with more consistent pricing. However, there’s a new breed of online traders who believe they can make a quick profit by trading wine online. They’re not wine merchants and have little or no knowledge or experience with wine, which is not good for the wine buying public!

Generally these people develop a flashy website, listing hundreds of wines but actually holding no stock. Their prices sometimes look very keen but are most likely seriously out of date, as they’re not involved in the industry and are not up to date with current trends. They tend to trade from the spare bedroom with no overheads and in some cases no VAT registration either. So Joe Public orders a case online. Normally with a bona fide merchant this case would be despatched same day to arrive with the customer the following day. However, with one of these ‘no stock’ wine merchants delivery is likely to take up to two weeks as they then frantically try to buy the wine in at a lower price than they sell it for! Often they can’t find any at the right price and offer a weak excuse to the customer, or worse still don’t even bother to inform them at all.

To give an example I ordered 12 bottles of Laurent Perrier Rose Champagne from winebuythecase.co.uk. I’ve had a similar story from several other people who have had the same experience as myself and have been as suitably frustrated too. After four days I had still heard nothing other than the email I received shortly after placing my order. I sent at least three emails over the following days and tried phoning over twenty times, only to receive an answerphone message informing me they were extremely busy and to email if I had a query! After two weeks I just gave up. Fortunately they had not debited my card as they were trying to find the wine first.

If I had been informed at the time they had no stock I could have ordered it somewhere else, and avoided a lot of frustrating hassle. There’s a growing number of these people getting into the industry these days and they’re spoiling the wine buying experience and making people nervous about ordering online.

So how do you avoid these people and the hassle caused? It’s quite simple. Look for a contact address and phone number on the website. Make sure the merchant you’re ordering from actually holds the wine in stock and has next day delivery available – with all the courier services available, there’s really no need to wait seven days for delivery these days! Make sure you’re buying from a genuine company with premises – it only takes a few seconds to Google an address or postcode. If in doubt phone them up and speak to someone. If nobody answers it’s most likely because Arthur’s downstairs painting his shed!

Would you buy a car from an Arthur Daley? So why risk buying your wine from one?

We’ve done a recent piece on the government’s idiotic taxation strategy pushing up the price on wine, now here’s one explaining how the weak pound has affected prices.

Just to clarify, for those of you didn’t know, the government has increased duty on wine under 15% abv by 36 pence (&vat) per bottle in the last 15 months – even more on wines over 15%! Beer and spirits have also been the victim of huge duty hikes too. Has this achieved the government’s desired goals and increased revenue for them? No. Quite simply, due to these price increases, people are drinking less and the government’s revenue from excise duty on alcoholic drinks has actually fallen sharply! Well done Darling, once again. That man really is an own goal specialist – not only has his strategy reduced revenue from excise duty on alcohol, it’s also contributed hugely to the demise of the on trade business in the UK with pubs and restaurants closing down on a daily basis, putting hundreds and thousands of people out of work where they were paying tax and vat, and onto the benefit system where they’re claiming money. In reality it’s costing the UK billions of pounds per year, but Darling just can’t see it.

Unfortunately, Darling’s clown like antics aside, this has had a desperate affect on the licensed trade and we’re seeing businesses closing down on a daily basis as a direct result.  The pubs are the hardest hit, then probably restaurants and hotels, but it affects everyone in the trade particularly independent wine merchants who have to compete with the supermarkets who can afford to sell at a loss.

Anyway, onto the weak pound. 15 months ago the Pound traded at 1.40 Euros or just over US$2 . Last month it was down as low as 1.07 Euros or  $US 1.39.

So a bottle of wine costing a merchant 5 Euros in 2008 was £3.57 plus £1.36 duty which is £4.93 plus vat (@17.5%) which is £5.79. This wine may retail at £7.99.

The same bottle still at 5 Euros in 2009 was £4.67 plus £1.60 duty which is £6.27 plus vat (@15%) which is £7.21. This wine would then have to retail at £9.99 – an increase of 25%.

However, as there’s a credit crunch worldwide, the producers have also put on their own price increases and shipping & packaging charges have also increased. Throw in the chancellor’s duty increases and you’ll see wine has increased by as much as 40%!

We’re already in June. VAT is set to revert to 17.5% next January, although there’s plenty of speculation that it’ll actually increase by even more – that’s around £5 a dozen on a case of £10 a bottle wine.

But to put all these consecutive price rises into perspective take a look at this illustration: a wine which cost £8 plus vat last year, cost you £9.40 per bottle, or £112.80 per case. Next year it will cost £10 plus vat at 18.5% which is £11.85 - £2.45 per bottle more, that’s an increase of £29.40 per case! And that’s before Darling increases duty yet again in the next April budget by his already declared 2% above the rate of inflation! So be wise and stock up in the next few months.

Did you know that the only place in the UK where vat is not applicable to retail alcohol sales is the bar in the House of Commons? And parliament has a wine cellar funded by the tax payer to rival any in the world? We may be questioning their personal expense claims but there are still plenty of perks to being an MP!

We wine lovers have seen a rollercoaster ride over the last 13 months. In the April budget 2008 the darling, Darling, increased duty on still wine under 15% by 12 pence per bottle, with an even bigger increase on stronger wine and champagne/sparkling wine.

Then in December, with the stealth of a Royal Marine Commando, he slipped in another 12 pence per bottle hike but kept it under the radar from the public by also lowering VAT at the same time. What’s wrong with that, you may ask? One tax is the same as another to the consumer. So it would appear on the surface, but that’s an illusion. To the retailer, whether a pub, restaurant or shop, they must charge VAT on the wine when they sell it, but can claim back the VAT they paid when they bought it, before forwarding the difference to the taxman, effectively the VAT on the profit. Now this is where it gets complicated – a bottle of wine can pass through several different ‘pairs of hands’ in the supply chain before it reaches the consumer. Each one charges VAT when they sell it,  and each one reclaims  the VAT on the price they paid for it (which is lower of course). The net result, regardless of how many people handle the wine, is that Customs & Excise get VAT (currently 15%) on the final sales price.

But by increasing the duty,  the price of the wine has increased and the retailer can’t reclaim it. Factor in an agent’s percentage and a retailer’s margin on this duty increase - again worked on a percentage basis, and the wine has increased significantly in price – and here’s the trick – the Inland Revenue although lowering the VAT rate to 15%,  are able to charge it on a higher price and make their money back! Now here’s the double whammy. The VAT rate is set to revert to 17.5%, if not even higher,  in January 2010 and you can bet the Chancellor isn’t going to give that 12 pence per bottle back! As a third whammy, let’s not forget the original 12 pence per bottle additional revenue  too.

This April he increased excise duty by the same amount yet again. And he’s pledged to increase duty each year by 2% over the rate of inflation so your wine is going to continue to increase significantly in price.

So how has all this affected prices?

They’ve rocketed! Duty on a case of wine back in 2001 was around £13.75, it’s now £19.26. Don’t forget, if it comes from outside the EU there’s an additional Customs Tax to pay as well.

That’s the duty.  Now the VAT. Let’s not forget, when the wine arrives in the UK, VAT is payable on the ‘value of the wine’ which also includes all it’s packaging, shipping and even insurance costs! And the masterstroke! VAT is actually charged on the Duty too!

What does this mean in real terms?

Well, the magical 3 bottles of plonk – say from South Africa or Chile – for £10, breaks down like this: DUTY £4.95, VAT £1.30, which is over £2 per bottle for the Treasury, which helps explain the government’s very lax attitude to the supermarkets’ highly irresponsible policy of promoting alcohol for sale below cost price. We’re talking about billions of pounds a year here for the Treasury.

So, back to the wine, you have £3.75 left, £1.25 per bottle, to cover the production of the wine and the producer’s margin, the glass, labelling and cardboard packaging, transport half way round the world, storage and transport in the UK, then the retailer’s margin!  Do you think the quality of the wine will have gone up or down? I thought it had already hit rock bottom and thought it couldn’t possibly get any worse.

What about good wine?

Well good wine has obviously been affected by the same duty increases, but because it costs more anyway, the increase is not so dramatic as it’s a fixed amount not a percentage. However this string of unwelcome increases has pushed prices up and consumers need to mentally readjust their expectations. You used to be able to buy a good wine for £10 and a fairly reasonable one for£5. That reasonable one is now more like £8 a bottle, due also to the weak pound, which is our next topic for discussion – the £ sterling has dropped about 30% in value in a year, which combined with duty increases has pushed up wine prices by 35%. It’s only thanks to some canny wine merchants who bought stock at the right time and have held their prices, that we’re not seeing even higher price increases.

South African wine – is it any good?

In a word – yes! There are some truly world class wines coming out of South Africa these days. However there are two main obstacles preventing the wine loving British public from getting their hands on them. The first is the South Africans like to drink the good stuff themselves! Perfectly understandable and something we can live with. The second obstacle is the domination of the UK wine trade by big corporations who insist on churning out dross and dressing it up as wine. We’re talking about a multi billion pound industry here, so we can all understand their motivation. Unfortunately it’s us, the average wine lover, who suffers - along with the other major victim in this, the small quality producer who makes his wine with pride.

Why can’t I just buy good wine in the local shop?

Anyone who’s been fortunate enough to travel to the South African wine country has almost certainly enjoyed some superb wine, and no doubt on his return wondered why the South African wine he ordered in his local shop, restaurant or pub was so awful. It’s the same message as always – the big brands, by their very nature offer poor quality at cheap prices and these dominate the UK trade. If you want good wine you have to look elsewhere. Unfortunately the brand culture dominates in the supermarkets, and national grocery chains.

You may then think you could find better wine in independent retailers? Well, in specialist wine merchants – possibly, dependant on the business model and integrity of the individual retailer. In independent grocers and off licenses – probably not. This is because the bulk wine trade in the UK is dominated by several huge companies who supply the vast majority of these retailers, with the inferior quality brands. Companies like Matthew Clarke Wholsale with a turnover in excess of £1 billion p.a., Waverly Vintners TBA with a turnover of £1/2 billion p.a., national brewers like Carlsberg, Scottish Courage and Coors all of whom pedal this poor wine into all their outlets. The pubs, restaurants and retailers are all under financial pressure and are pressurised by these big companies into stocking their wines. Unless you’re lucky enough to find one which is owned by a wine enthusiast, you’re likely to be offered a selection of poor quality brands from one of these major players.

So how do I find good quality wine, South African or otherwise?

Here’s the good news. There’s a new wave of small, independent wine merchants who are catering for the market who want to buy good wine, made by real people with generations of epertise, in wineries - not by machines in vast, sterile factories. 10 years ago in order to buy good wine you’d have to be lucky enough to live close to one of these merchants. However, nowadays with the advent of the interweb, it’s easy for everyone to find good wine at the click of a mouse and have it delivered to the door. And the best news – your local wine shop can’t get away with overcharging you because you can check prices nationally and make sure you’re paying the right price.

The good from the bad?

Of course not everyone on the internet is offering good wine! There are plenty of firms just offering hundreds of wines they’ve never even tasted, using descriptions and tasting notes straight from the back label! This wine may still be rubbish! There are also online ‘wine merchants’ who are really just one man trading from his bedroom!  They get a fancy website and take the customer’s order. They then try to buy the wine themselves and sell it on at a profit taking up to 2 weeks for your wine to arrive.

However it’s relatively easy to be sure you’re dealing with a reputable firm, that the wine’s good and has been correctly stored. Just do a bit of investigation on their home page. Look for a phone number. Look for someone who holds their wines in stock and offers next day delivery. Look for someone who’s actually tasted what they’re selling, and is choosey about which wines they offer, not simply offering every wine from each producer. And best of all look for a business that’s owned by a human being, not a corporation so you’re dealing with a person! These wine merchants do exist – spend some time tracking down a good one like www.goodwineonline.co.uk and you’ll be drinking good wine at last!