Brits are cutting back on European wine
Journalists are sometimes a bit slow. I am just reading an article in the German newspaper Die Welt and they have come to the surprising conclusion that Brits are less likely to buy European wine these days as Sterling is so weak compared to the Euro. I am not quite sure why this article comes out now, after all Sterling was pretty much on par with the Euro around Christmas and has since picked up 17%, but it is true that buying wine from the continent is not as exciting as it was two years ago.
The UK has very high duties and taxes on wine, but if you order only for your personal consumption you do not have to pay these. This means that in 2007 I could import German Riesling for about 50% less than what it would have cost me to buy the same wine in the UK. It is still cheaper now, but not as good value as it was before. However, that is not really news.
One interesting fact though: the UK taxes wine 65 times as much as France. Cheers!