Is it really worth spending more on a bottle? And at what point do you start getting value for money?
Wine prices have crept up over the last couple of years and the current economic climate (read duty increases and the weak pound) means that the price of your normal bottle of vino may creep up over the next few months, without the actual wine in the bottle changing. Or worse, the wine may get a bit of a downgrade so it can stay at the same price. Which makes it all the more important to know where the sweet spot is where you get better vino for your dinero.
The key thing to know is that wine costs do not increase proportionally, so at low prices very little of what you pay actually goes onto the wine itself. Duty is £2.16 on every bottle, regardless of price and VAT is another 20% (which is £1.08 on a £5 bottle) so together they make up 60% of a £5 bottle of wine, and after shipping, labelling and retailer costs only 37p is left for wine. This link from Bibendum (who sell wine to restaurants and bars and have a brilliant stats and graphics team!) shows you how each bottle breaks down.
Our summary below shows where the sweet spots are…the difference between £5 and £7.50 is significant.
So spending £7.50 instead of £5 means you get 4 times the value of wine per bottle and at least 20% of your money is going towards wine. Beyond that every extra £1 you spend increases the proportion of wine that you’re actually buying and you’re probably helping the producer make better wines in a better way.
So what happens when you’ve not managed to find that extra cash (even down the back of the sofa)? Visit our wine hacks page for some tips on how to make your wine taste better, whatever you paid for it…
How much are you prepared to spend to get good value?