What price wine?

(by peter & susie)

We quite like these cheeky infographics produced by northern wine merchant Corks Out detailing the rough costs involved in a bottle of wine.

While there are a few things like this knocking about, and you can always argue over the detail, it’s always good to remind ourselves of the difference that a few pounds can make.

This is not to say that all cheap wine is rubbish or that you need to shell out loadsamoney every time you buy a bottle. Or even that a £20 bottle will always be better than a £10 bottle. Some producers (and retailers) do amazing jobs sourcing great value wine. But we find (eg when selecting wines for Saturday Kitchen) that it’s getting increasingly difficult to find consistently decent wines under £7 on the UK high street. Much of this is due to the tax hikes of recent years, VAT included – in short, the price of wine has definitely shifted upwards significantly of late.

What this means is that it’s difficult to make a sustainable business out of £5 bottles of wine. Wine is losing market share to cider and other drinks at this level. We’d argue this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In the UK we’ve been weaned to believe wine should be cheap or discounted – and this just isn’t, or shouldn’t be the case. Wine shouldn’t be crazy expensive either (thank the bordelais and investors for that) but there is a happy medium of affordability and sustainability in this business.

We just need to find that perfect balance – for producers, retailers and drinkers. And it’s not at £4.99.

You can see more such infographics, as well as added contextual detail, on the Corks Out website.