Category Archives: Ramblings and Rants

13 Unpalatable Truths about UK Wine Duty

March 24 2011

Psst. Don’t mention the wine.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, didn’t say the word once in his UK Budget speech yesterday, on 23rd March. He simply said that there would be no further increases to alcohol duty beyond the measures already in place.

graphThe media relayed the apparent good news as ‘no increase in alcohol tax’ but a few tweets later and a quick glance at the HM Treasury budget statement (page 61) showed that wine has gone up 15p a bottle, from this Sunday. Even a 4p annual increase used to get mentioned in every Budget overview. Now, a 15p rise doesn’t even get a look in. So, forgive me, but this calls for a rant.

It is, of course, all the previous Government’s doing:

“The government will continue with the plans announced in the March 2010 Budget (i.e. Labour’s last) to increase the rates by 2 per cent above inflation each year to 2014-15.” Budget June 2010

So we now have a situation where none of the three major parties will criticize the policy towards alcohol duty.

Here are 13 unpalatable truths about UK duty on wine:

1.     The UK now has the highest duty on wine in Europe.

2.     Only four countries (UK, Ireland, Finland and Sweden) have duty of over 50p a bottle. In France, it’s 3p.

dutyforblog1

3.     From April 2000, our first spring here, to March 2008, UK duty on wine went up by a total of 15%. In the last three years, duty has gone up a whopping 36%.

4.     Duty will increase by 2% above inflation each year until 2015. It went up 7.2% in this budget from £1.69 to £1.81.  It is misleading though to say that wine has gone up 12p + VAT to the consumer, because every retailer, merchant and restaurant treats duty as part of the cost, just like the wine. Duty is charged upfront by HMRC, when the wine is taken out of customs, so it’s a real cost. Every merchant I know, except of course those that are selling ‘In Bond’, takes the cost of wine, plus the cost of freight/distribution and the duty as the basis of the cost of the wine, before adding their gross margin to cover their costs and to make a profit.

ukdutyforblog

5.     UK duty, and VAT on the duty, is over £26 a case at £2.17 a bottle. It will be £30 a case in two years at the current rate of inflation. VAT, which also went up in January of course, is charged on duty and the wine, so there’s a double whammy. (Update: in fact, the double tax increase in Q1 means that a £5 bottle on 1st Jan is up 25p to £5.25, a £7.25 bottle is 30p up to £7.55 and there’s 36p more tax to add to a £10 bottle.) Keep reading

A First-Timer’s Guide to the En Primeur Week in Bordeaux

March 23 2011

I wrote this post for Livex – “The insiders’ guide to the Global Fine Wine Market.”

Robert Parker and other critics are in Bordeaux this week, getting to grips with the new vintage from barrel.

dsc_0676The rest of us – trade and press alike – will have to wait until the first week of April, traditionally the week hosted by the Union des Grands Crus or ‘UGCs’. Scores of other groups have sprung up over the years, while at least 30 of the most sought-after wines can only be sampled at the Chateaux themselves.

So here’s a list of the most popular tastings and those exclusive Chateaux, with the dates and the number of wines in brackets. At the end, I’ve jotted down my ten top tips. Keep reading

People Power and Bottling Machines

February 24 2011

In my list of New Year’s Resolutions for 2011, there’s no mention of switching from corks to Stelvin screwcaps for white and rosé, and changing our whole bottling process. There’s just a brief squiggle in the margin of ‘New Year Goals’, saying ‘check with customers about closures.’

img_4399_31Perhaps we should ‘check with customers’ more often because a month after asking, we’d used different bottles, different closures, revised back labels and a different bottling machine for over 130,000 bottles. Later in this post I’ll cover the bottling but here’s a reminder of how our customers made the call to change.

Although I’m a big fan of Twitter, and have a rather feeble Facebook Page, we wanted some swift, one-to-one feedback, without too much interference from either lobby. So on 14 January, with the help of a nifty online survey program called Wufoo, we emailed our customers (we use Campaign Monitor) with the question ‘what closures should we use to bottle our wines?’

As a guide, I wrote an accompanying article called 10 Questions about Corks v Screwcaps and within a week, over 1150 kindly completed the online survey. More than 700 people added a comment, which was staggering, given that most of the UK wine trade and press think the subject a bit passé (me included, in all honesty, before I understood that customers have such strong views).

This was the result, which I’ve edited from the Survey Results post with my self-serving Pacman effect to highlight the conclusion we came to:

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With almost two thirds voting for screwcap for white, plus 19% ‘Don’t Mind’, 84% is a persuasive majority.  Only 12.4% expressed a preference for cork for our rosé, our top selling wine in the summer (i.e. we’d be sealing it with a closure that only 1 in 8 wanted).

It’s a different story for Bordeaux red with 77% voting for cork or ‘don’t mind’. 23% is still a sizeable vote for screwcap for this, the most traditional of wine regions, but it should be remembered that we’re from the cheap seats, not the royal circle.

Keep reading

Parker Gives Bordeaux a Double Boost

February 20 2011

There are more than a few Châteaux owners, and wine merchants, who will be mightily relieved that über critic Robert Parker is coming to Bordeaux in March to taste the 2010s in barrel, as well as the 2008s which were bottled last summer. Thankfully for them, Mr P is now well enough to travel following knee surgery, having tweeted recently that flying to Bordeaux might be ‘a pipedream’ unless his rate of recovery improved.

dsc_0004Of more lasting significance, he announced on the 5th February that he has handed over the rating of Californian wines to his Wine Advocate colleague, Antonio Galloni, who also takes over the best bits of Burgundy. Parker is now concentrating on Bordeaux and the Rhône. See below for the important change to his review calendar, which shows that he’ll be coming to Bordeaux twice a year, not just once.

The new responsibilities for Parker and his team at The Wine Advocate and erobertparker.com are: Keep reading

Bordeaux 2010, Part Two: The Wines

February 18 2011

This post was written for Liv-ex, “the insiders’ guide to the global fine wine market,” and was published today. It follows on from “Bordeaux 2010, Part One: The Weather.”

dsc_0022_2There’s an embarrassment of riches in the best barrel cellars of Bordeaux right now. The relatively inexpensive 2008s are being shipped out (the first tranche offer of 100€ ex-cellars for First Growths in April 2009 seems a long time ago), leaving row upon row of French oak barriques bearing the precious, pre-paid 2009 vintage. And, currently being assembled in the ‘first year’ cellars, there’s another great vintage waiting in line.

Time will tell if Lilian Barton Sartorius was right when she said at the start of the harvest, “However well the 2010s turn out, they are going to be cheaper than the 2009s.” At the time I nodded sagely in agreement but now, following an outstanding harvest and with more names being touted as the next big thing in China, I’m not so sure. Meanwhile, a few wise old heads are keeping shtum about 2010 as they want their wines to do the talking in the spring. Nobody wants to hear about another vintage of the century. At least, not just yet.

dsc_0323_2Robert Parker, after concerns that he would be unable to travel following knee surgery, has indicated that he will be coming to taste the new vintage next month. Significantly, his friend Michel Rolland, the renowned consultant oenologist, believes that most estates that he works with have made, er, better wines in 2010 than in 2009, and for those who prefer wines at the other end of the structure spectrum, Denis Dubourdieu quietly agrees – at least, for reds and dry whites. Keep reading

Bordeaux 2010 Part One: The Weather

February 11 2011

This article was written for Liv-ex – ‘the insider’s guide to the global fine wine market’ – and published today.

As wine merchants and critics make travel arrangements for the En Primeur barrel tastings in late March and early April, many wise old heads in Bordeaux are keeping shtum about the 2010 vintage. (After the massive prices achieved last summer for the top 2009s, owners and managers would prefer their wines to do the talking in the Spring, as buyers don’t want to hear that it’s another vintage of a lifetime. At least, not just yet.)

As a grower in Bordeaux and dedicated vine-spotter, and being British, the weather is something I like to keep an eye on. I also visited scores of leading Chateaux during the growing season and throughout the harvest. Here are some conclusions, with the help of a few charts, about 2010.

In summary

1. 2010 was a very dry year.

2. 2010 was sunny…

3. … but not too hot.

4. Uneven flowering, lower yields?

5. Top terroirs shine, again.

6. Rain in the nick of time.

7. A later harvest (than 2009 and 2005).

8. Harvest ‘à la carte’.

1. 2010 was a very dry year.

002271_rain_2010-01

I live 15 miles east of Bordeaux and 15 miles SW of St-Emilion between the Garonne and Dordogne rivers. Bordeaux is a vast wine region, and the weather can vary significantly from one end to the other. It’s fair to say though that 2010 was a dry year across all areas. Keep reading

Corks v Screwcaps Survey Results

January 26 2011

We’ve had an incredible response to our recent ’30-Second Survey’. As I mentioned in 10 Questions about Corks v Screwcaps, we’ve considered whether we should continue with corks for our white and rosé, and possibly for our reds. With the bottling of over 10,000 cases due to take place next month, we wanted to know what everyone thinks. The easiest thing to do would be not to change anything – after all, we get few complaints.

On 14 January, we emailed all our customers (or rather, all those who are on our email list), with a link to a simple survey, which closed a week later. The question was:

What closures should we use to bottle our wines?

There were three choices – cork, screwcap or don’t mind – for each category of white, rosé and red. Over 1100 responded within a week, leaving their full name and email address (which wasn’t obligatory). Around 700 left a comment. This was the result (1148 entries):

002251chartsforblog_02

Conclusions

Keep reading

Picked for Hotel du Vin

November 25 2010

We are delighted to announce that the wines of Château Bauduc have been selected as the “Premium” house wines for the Hotel du Vin group.

dsc_0012_2Our wines have now been delivered to all fourteen locations in England and Scotland. Other than the flattering endorsement of our red, white and rosé, all of which have the Bauduc/Hotel du Vin label, this provides a great opportunity for us to host wine tastings and wine dinners for many of our customers around the UK. We’d be delighted to read any ideas or suggestions you may have for what might – or might not – work at the various locations.

The fourteen Hotel du Vins are at: Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cambridge, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Harrogate, Henley-on-Thames, York, Newcastle, Poole, Tunbridge Wells and Winchester.

Keep reading

Record Price for Rare Bordeaux… which I once put on expenses

No sooner had we gone to print with La Gazette, with news that the record auction price for a bottle of wine had been smashed, then another record comes along.

lafite_chevalblancThree bottles of Lafite 1869 went for £147,000 each to a buyer at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong last month, and now Christie’s have sold a six-litre bottle of Cheval Blanc 1947 for £192,000 in Geneva.

For me, there are four remarkable things about these new records:

1. Prior to last month, the record for the highest price paid at auction for a single bottle of wine hadn’t changed for 25 years. In 1985, a bottle of 1787 Lafite was sold at Christie’s in 1985. A jump now to nearly £150,000 each, for not just one but three bottles, is quite a leap.

2. The pre-sale estimate for the Lafite 1869 was just £3200 – £5200 per bottle. It seems that even the experts have as much of an insight into the Chinese market as the rest of us – not unlike the £1.2 million top estimate for the Qing dynasty vase that sold this month at an auctioneers in Ruislip, of all places, for £43 million (£53 million was the total bill).

3. Hong Kong has established itself as the Fine Wine capital of the world in under four years. Tax on wine was as high as 80% at the beginning of 2007, then slashed by half that year, and then abolished completely in February 2008. The number of wine merchants, I’m told, has increased from 400 to 4000, and the number of tourists – splashing out on fine wine and fine dining – has increased dramatically.

4. As for nearly £200,000 for an Imperial of Cheval Blanc 1947 – well, I once claimed for a bottle of this wine on expenses. Keep reading

2010: a Remarkable Vintage for Bauduc

October 28 2010

We harvested our red grapes in perfect condition during October. Whether other Châteaux in Bordeaux are making wines as good as or even better than last year remains to be seen, but after frost here at Bauduc in April 2008 and hail in May 2009, it’s a welcome change for us to bring in such quality, and quantity.

2010 has been a remarkable year for us in so many ways.

dsc_00211. No major natural disasters: no Spring frost to decimate the yield by nipping the shoots in the bud. No late Spring hail to destroy the young shoots and baby bunches. Even the drought conditions this Summer didn’t dry up our hopes for a splendid crop. Let’s pray that there’ll be no repeat of any damaging storms this Winter.

dsc02261_32. No man-made catestrophes: no tractors catching fire during the harvest (above right, in 2009), and no trailors full of grapes tipping over: our former employee, Sebastien, pictured right, was probably wishing he’d taken a sicky the day I took this shot in late September, 2005. I’ve not published this photo before as it wasn’t exactly our finest hour. We ended up selling the tank of wine that these grapes went into, in ‘bulk’ and at a loss.

Keep reading