Everyone wants good value for money when they buy a bottle of wine, but what does good value for money mean when it comes to wine and what is the difference I hear you asking, between a £3.99 bottle of wine and one at say £23.99 or even £103.99. Well, firstly at the lower price point you have to consider how much of your outlay is actually the wine in your glass.
On each bottle sold the Government claim £2.05, a combination of duty and VAT, this rises to £2.64 when buying a £5.99 sparkling wine! Some countries also have to pay an additional Customs Tariff to import wine into the EC which adds a further 10p. The retailers margin is about 85p and then there’s the winery margin (tiny too), the cost of shipping and transport, the cost of the bottle and the box it comes in. Taking all of this into consideration your £3.99 wine is actually worth about 28p and if it’s a big brand name then you can bet you will be paying extra for the marketing of the brand rather than the quality in the bottle.
When you spend a little more on a wine, costs like duty, materials, transport and shipping stay stable meaning that the quality in your bottle increases with every £1 you spend. For example when you increase your spend by 50% and buy at £5.99, the value of the wine goes up by 200%, now that has got to make sense! However, this doesn’t mean that your £23.99 bottle is 5 times better than your £3.99 bottle. The “formula” tends to hit a ceiling when you get to about £10, anything above that has a reason for being more expensive,. For example, lower yields from the vineyard, better vineyard management, the results of stricter laws and regulations, oak and type of oak used, supply and demand; these all play an important part in the cost of the finished wine.
When all is said and done, wine should be about what you like and what you enjoy drinking as well as your overall budget. And when you come into Corks Out you can be guaranteed that our level of knowledge will ensure that you get the best value wine that meets with your palate, what you maybe eating for dinner and your budget, it’s as simple as that……..That’s what makes Corks Out in Stockton Heath a true wine specialist, whether it’s £5 or £50.
Last updated: June 25, 2008