A steady stream of emails has been arriving in my inbox announcing increases in prices due to the recent rise in UK duty, which, if you haven’t already clocked, has gone up 10.1% on an average 11.5-14.5% ABV bottle of wine (duty is now related to alcohol strength, but more of that later), which amounts to 44p a bottle, or 53p once you add 20% VAT.
If you buy a bottle that’s over 14.5%, the duty increase is even higher, which hits fortified wines such as port and sherry particularly hard. Sherry has been underpriced for years, of course, but I’m sure fellow fans would rather see the price increase go to producers than to the Treasury.
