Post-Brexit red tape could add £1.50 to bottle of wine warn importers

Wine lovers have been warned they face paying a “Brexit tax” of up to £1.50 more for bottles from countries such as France, Italy and Spain as a direct result of “ludicrous” red tape.

Producers and importers told the Standard that the blizzard of extra forms they now have to complete to get bottled wine into Britain would force many to stop supplying the UK altogether.

The impact of Brexit on wine choice and prices for consumers has not yet been fully felt because of stockpiling before Christmas.  

However, importers warned that within weeks the choice in British supermarkets and off licences will start to reduce dramatically and prices will rise.

Wine wholesaler Daniel Lambert said extra haulage fees and new customs forms that now have to be filled in on both sides of the Channel have doubled the freight costs on a typical pallet of 600 bottles from around £180 to as much as £400.

Once other supply chain surcharges and agents’ and retailers’ profit margin have been factored in this will add £1 to £1.50 to a typical bottle of wine from a small European producer, he said.

He added: ”I think 20 to 30 per cent of product range will disappear, the whole thing is beyond ludicrous.”

Gavin Quinney, the co-owner of the Chateau Bauduc vineyard near Bordeaux, which supplies the house wine for Gordon Ramsay’s three Michelin starred flagship Chelsea restaurant, restaurateur Rick Stein and the Hotel du Vin group, said: “Before Brexit if you had a big truck coming down to a wine region and dealing with smaller independents and doing maybe 15 pick-ups it used to be a doddle. Now it’s an absolute dog.”

He shipped half a year’s supply to Britain late last year to give himself time to prepare, but said other producers had already decided the UK was no longer worth the hassle.

Where as the forms were all handled electronically previously through a system called EMCS, now producers face having to fill in paper documents.

Mr Quinney said: “It’s like going from booking a holiday through an app on your phone to having to go to the travel agent on the high street with a cheque book.”

He estimated the extra costs as equating to around £1 a bottle.

He added: “There is no doubt that many of the smaller domains – not the top chateau names – all over Europe are going to be a thing of the past in Britain, people just won’t bother.”

Miles Beale, chief executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association, said: “There have been fundamental changes for EU exporters shipping their wines to the UK in terms of how they do business, requiring a change from six steps to 15, and engagement with multiple different systems. 

Full customs declarations are required for all excise goods and businesses have had to review the terms of which they do business with their entire supply chain. It’s too early to predict what the extra costs might be.”