Bit like my 'What's changed?' thread I've got to ask you guys if you are experiencing the same as me in other parts of the country...
Over the past 4-5 weeks the wine selection in our local supermarket, which happens to be a Waitrose, is getting less and less, big empty gaps of the French and Italian sections for all colours, even the more expensive bottles are now going.
So this week Waitrose have finally put up a sign explaining that apparently there is a 'country-wide distribution issue' and they hope to improve things but please bear with them.
I'm going to guess they mean the issues are with getting the bottles across from Europe??
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>> Bit like my 'What's changed?' thread I've got to ask you guys if you are
>> experiencing the same as me in other parts of the country...
>>
>> Over the past 4-5 weeks the wine selection in our local supermarket, which happens to
>> be a Waitrose, is getting less and less, big empty gaps of the French and
>> Italian sections for all colours, even the more expensive bottles are now going.
Yup, exact same scenario in every way discussed here not two days ago. It has to be said that waitrose logistics chain is not the best in the business by some very long way but similar wine stock issues are being seen in other supermarkets.
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>> >> Bit like my 'What's changed?' thread I've got to ask you guys if you
>> are
>> >> experiencing the same as me in other parts of the country...
>> >>
>> >> Over the past 4-5 weeks the wine selection in our local supermarket, which happens
>> to
>> >> be a Waitrose, is getting less and less, big empty gaps of the French
>> and
>> >> Italian sections for all colours, even the more expensive bottles are now going.
Mrs CS has just returned from Waitrose and tells me that the wine shelves were looking rather sparse, although she managed to pick up a couple of decent reds. The current 25% discount (off 6 bottles) may be partly to blame...
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Both my local Tescos are similar, lots of blank areas, with little labels promising a re-delivery date - many not kept to.
Fortunately I do not buy wine hand to mouth - it's just my restocking that's slightly compromised.
Certain to be caused by paperwork at the border.
It will eventually be bad news for the French, Spanish and Italian winemakers, until the EU realises and stops trying to punish us. Their bad faith is begining to show
Plenty of good wines from the Antipodes and South America.
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"Fortunately I do not buy wine hand to mouth - it's just my restocking that's slightly compromised.
Certain to be caused by paperwork at the border.
It will eventually be bad news for the French, Spanish and Italian winemakers, until the EU realises and stops trying to punish us. Their bad faith is begining to show
Plenty of good wines from the Antipodes and South America."
I am in the same situation, having a good stock, and also planning to look elsewhere. For the past several years, I have bought wine (mostly reds) directly from Portugal; the supplier has been very reliable and efficient, and in January I received the following explanation (it is quite complicated) .........
"Many of you have asked about the new rules and we share below all the information we have:
The products are now VAT excluded in our store and upon arrival it’s subject to the local 20% VAT tax.
All non-alcoholic products, the ones in our gourmet area, aren’t subject to any additional duty.
The alcoholic products are subject to excise duty and for wines up to 15% alcohol volume it’s 297.57 GBP per hectoliter, 2.23 GBP per bottle of 750ml and twice for a magnum bottle.
Sparkling wines have a different excise, it’s 381.15 GBP per hectoliter so it should be 2.86 GBP per bottle of 750ml.
A fortified wine such as a Port Wine will take 396.72 GBP per hectoliter so it’s 2.97 GBP per bottle of 750ml
As for spirits such as a Brandy or Gin, it will be 28.74 GBP per liter of alcohol volume, so if it’s a 40% alc. volume and a 700ml bottle, it should be 8.05 GBP.
Finally, the beers have a low excise. It’s 19.08 GBP per liter of alcohol, so it means that for a 5% alc. volume beer and 330ml bottle, it should be 0.31 GBP.
One of our best sellers to the UK market, the Vidigal Porta 6, before the BREXIT at 3.60 GBP plus shipping, it will be now 3.19 GBP plus 2.23 GBP excise and 20% VAT tax, so a total of 6.50 GBP per bottle.
The shipping cost is the same in terms of transport cost but it takes per order an extra fee of 9.79 GBP for the exportation customs dispatch so it means that if you buy more than one case of 12 bottles, you will save money since it’s a flat fee per order and not per case.
In the end a bottle of Vidigal Porta 6 that in the past was around 4.7 GBP with all taxes and shipping included, will be now between 7 and 8 GBP depending on the number of bottles ordered."
A bottle of Porta 6 red currently costs £7.50 in Sainsbury's so there is no advantage in importing directly myself - I may as well wait for a 'buy 6 get 25% off' offer. And I will look outside of EU producers.
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Deffo looks like a return to the booze cruise, I can see the ferries re-instating their duty free shops, and the extra agro in border controls has added time and agro to eurotunnel.
Funny how things go full circle.
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Funnily I've just had an email from P&O promoting the very same thing even though we can't leave the country!
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>>I may as well wait for a 'buy 6 get 25% off' offer. And I will look outside of EU >>producers.
Pop down to Robert Boby Way for your 'Buy 6 get 25% off offer.
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.....Given the thread title, I thought this was going to be along the lines of "Who ate all the pies?"
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We are moderate drinkers and a dozen bottles of wine last us about 6 weeks. I use Waitrose Cellar for preference and Mrs. Ambo adds the occasional bottle to her grocery account if, for example, we have guests and she wants to make her signature 40% proof trifle for them.
Both of these sites are pests to use, hauling down extra windows without being asked,
then sometimes losing the plot entirely, but we both prefer them on balance. I don't usually venture much outside the Waitrose Blueprint Collection as all we want is reliable red, white and rose wines.
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"Pop down to Robert Boby Way for your 'Buy 6 get 25% off offer."
I assume that's a reference to our local Waitrose -but it seems that they are having supply difficulties too. I looked on their website a couple of days ago for Dom Martinho Red 2017 that I had earlier imported for about £6 + £1 transport from Portugal; Waitrose normally sell it for £11.99 - but the 6/25% offer would have bought it down to £9 with less hassle. Alas, they had none in stock.
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>> It will eventually be bad news for the French, Spanish and Italian winemakers, until the
>> EU realises and stops trying to punish us. Their bad faith is begining to show
>> Plenty of good wines from the Antipodes and South America.
This is stuff coming to us from them. Paperwork and taxes/duty reflect our desire to be a free trading, self governing state controlling our own money and borders. We wanted to be a third party nation and now we are.
I genuinely cannot see how problems like those flagged in this thread are an effect of punishment; even if I believed the EU was that petty anyway.
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>>
>> I genuinely cannot see how problems like those flagged in this thread are an effect
>> of punishment; even if I believed the EU was that petty anyway.
>>
....neither can I Bromp. The fact that they're effectively losing a lucrative export market is hardly leaving them unpunished, and it is entirely at the UK's behest. (our demand for extra paperwork, not theirs).
Price worth paying, though!
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"Price worth paying, though!"
I agree!
Someone has to pay the covid bill, the NHS bill, the Furlough bill and Marcus Rashford's lunch bill; the fact that I have to pay more wine tax is the least unpleasant way of coughing up. And, of course, if I don't want to pay that much, I can stick to Adnams, and my wife will go back to meths.
A few weeks ago, I read somewhere that personal wine importing was a bit of a tax loophole anyway; I also read that the amount of wine that can be brought in from booze-cruising is going to be limited.
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I live in Chile. Loads and loads of good wine with no importing required.
And the wine really is good.
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>> I live in Chile. Loads and loads of good wine with no importing required.
>>
>> And the wine really is good.
And they have all the import process in place and working. Yup its good stuff too. Not overoaked like the Aussie soup.
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I very rarely drink wine in the UK, but drink it by the bucket load when in Spain...normally a €2.39 job from Lidl. I’ve no class.
Friends drove out to Spain early October with a car full of tools, specific materials and household goods for their new house. They returned 4 weeks ago. It’s amazing how much booze you can get in a large VW with the rear seats down.
My ‘Settle Suppers’ beer drinking group get fortnightly deliveries from Saltaire Brewery, and one kind soul distributes from his home. I’m a ‘mini’ distribution point...our orders average £750/£1200 per fortnight. We have some thirsty farmers. Make me appear almost abstemious.
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>> when in Spain...normally a €2.39 job from Lidl. I’ve no class.
I would expect nothing else from a Larios drinker.
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>>
>> >> when in Spain...normally a €2.39 job from Lidl. I’ve no class.
>>
>> I would expect nothing else from a Larios drinker.
>>
I’ll have to stop feeding you lines.
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"And the wine really is good."
We had a members' favourite wine presentation at our local Wine Society last year; I was asked to present a white, so talked about Gruner Veltliner, but the wine that impressed me most was a Chilean red ...
Tabali Micas Carmenère 2015 (Chile) [apparently, from The Wine Society at £13.50]
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From the Cachapoal Valley. I'm impressed you got some of that, not one of the well known wines but very good. And that's not a bad price, either. About the same as we pay for it here. Not one of the cheap ones.
www.tabali.com/ficha-vinos/Micas-2015.pdf
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"About the same as we pay for it here."
When I was in Tasmania, I expected to be paying much less than in the UK for a decent Barossa red but I was saddened to discover that, if anything they cost more.
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I pay about the same for a bottle of Fullers London Pride as you do. Annoying isn't it.
www.jumbo.cl/cerveza-fullers-500-ml-london-pride/p
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Just back from Waitrose and believe the signs are not just on the wine but that's where they are the most noticeable...
By the way the 25% of on six bottles is a permanent offer if you have a Waitroe's card.
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Not drinking or knowing anything about wine, is there a shortage of non EU wines as much as EU ones?
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>> Not drinking or knowing anything about wine, is there a shortage of non EU wines
>> as much as EU ones?
>>
Nope, plenty of non EU wines. And I’ve managed to get a shipment of Beaune direct from France from a vineyard that had adapted to the EUs COVID delays to VAT changes. They shipped excluding french taces and HMRC charged me U.K. vat and duty. Painless bar the £12 admin fee... but that’s 20p a bottle, so I’ll live...
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>> By the way the 25% of on six bottles is a permanent offer if you
>> have a Waitroe's card.
That looks like a very generous offer, but I can't find anything on their Website to confirm it.
Perhaps it's an offer just for you, Rudedog.
:)
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"That looks like a very generous offer, but I can't find anything on their Website to confirm it."
There is currently no such permanent offer.
THE 25% on six bottles offer is good but not quite as generous as it seems since when the offer is on all the previously discounted offers are withdrawn. If, like a large proportion of customers, you usually buy whatever wine is on discount then there is not a great saving to be had. It should also be noted that certain wines "full" prices are inflated to allow regular discounting.
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Where's the wine gone! - Zero
