Hello, from a pretty rainy July – where has summer gone! Luckily flowering has come to a close now, and although the vines are enjoying a drink, they could really do with some sun to help ripen our berries!
This mid-month blog is on a different topic however, it may have escaped many of you, but from 1st August 2023 there will be changes to our duty rates in the UK.
Essentially, the duty on still wine is INCREASING by 53p per bottle.
This is the single biggest duty hike since 1975, and although Sparkling wine duty is coming down to the same level, for us as small producers with a focus on still wines, it is not overly helpful!
The government have introduced a Small Producers Relief, brilliant for us you might think! But no, this is for products that are below 8.5% alcohol, so will only benefit those cider and beer producers, not the wine or spirits category.
Despite some great lobbying from Wine GB to the government to implement a Cellar Door Relief scheme, no such thing is looking likely so this will be our new reality.
Eventually, from February 2024, we will move from our current 3 bands of duty, to 27 bands of duty. Which increase as the alcohol percentage increases. For anyone interested in looking a bit deeper into this, our friends at Chateau Baudac in Bordeaux have written a brilliant blog explaining the impact, check it out here
A fun (or not so fun) fact for the pub; on the new duty system, on an £8 bottle of wine, £4 will be paid in UK tax. £2.67 duty + £1.33 VAT.
So the simple message here, although we plan to hold our current bottle prices, buy your wines before the end of July 2023!
