The Wine Merchant issue 99

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THE WINE MERCHANT. An independent magazine for independent retailers

Issue 99, February 2021

Dog of the Month: Layla York Wines

Higher costs, more red tape – indies face up to price of Brexit Pre-Christmas stockpiling has shielded many from the impact, but for some the problems have already arrived

red tape, delays at ports and

certification charges for organic

wines are among the many issues testing

the patience and ingenuity of independents and suppliers as a result of Brexit.

Some indies seem relatively optimistic

that port disruptions and shipping delays

will be short-term, but there’s widespread

feeling that the impact on prices caused by

impact on cost and will wait to find out what happens on UK duty in the new

Budget [in March],” says David Farber at Connaught Cellars in London.

“Brexit doesn’t have such an impact if

you’re shipping huge volumes at a time but for smaller quantities, it has a big impact on price.

“It can be absorbed when you have

bought two pallets at a time because it’s divided across thousands of bottles.

“When we work with small artisan

winemakers and get an allocation of 40 or 60 bottles, the impact is quite huge.”

Continues page four

Harvest at te Pā © New Zealand Winegrowers

P

rice increases, prohibitive

the admin costs of complying with red tape will be more permanent.

Issues around HMRC’s Chief system for

logging customs codes for individual wines from EU countries were highlighted by

Daniel Lambert, of Daniel Lambert Wines, on his Twitter feed and subsequently picked up by various media.

Lambert described the impact of Brexit

as not just a car crash but “a multiple pile-

up in the fog” and predicted on-shelf price rises of between £1 and £2 a bottle.

Other operators have told The Wine

Merchant that prices will certainly rise but it’s too early to say by how much.

Many have only recently placed their first post-Christmas orders having stocked

up heavily in advance to avoid Brexit Day disruption.

Several maintain increases would not be

as steep as Lambert’s predictions.

“I think everyone is still assessing the

The first virtual New Zealand Wine Week is over, hot on the heels of news that sales in the UK off-trade were up 23% last year. Our New Zealand feature, starting on page 54, includes details of an independent promotion with thousands of pounds of stock up for grabs for retailers.


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