Average wine price in UK breaks £5 mark

11th January, 2013 by Lucy Shaw

The average price of a bottle of wine in the UK has broken the £5 mark for the first time.

According to the latest figures from Nielsen, the average off-trade price of a 75cl bottle of wine now stands at £5.03.

The finding forms part of a WineNation 2012 report commissioned by Accolade Wines’ research team in collaboration with Nielsen and other research bodies.

According to the report, since 2002, 80% of the rise in wine pricing can be atrributed to tax increases.

The report predicts that the £5.03 figure will rise to £5.10 by the end of the year, with tax now accounting for 60% of a £5 bottle of wine in the UK.

At the end of 2011, the average price of a bottle of wine in the UK was £4.74.

In July 2011, Dan Jago, Tesco’s then category director for beers, wines and spirits (who has since been promoted to UK & group wine director), admitted to the drinks business that the days of being able to buy wine in the UK for under £5 were coming to an end.

“It’s increasingly difficult to get wine below £5. We’ve got a terrific range of wines under £5, but it’s getting smaller and smaller, which is a good thing,” Jago said.

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3 Responses to “Average wine price in UK breaks £5 mark”

Jamie says:

January 11, 2013 at 11:07 pm

I think its still good for the wine industry, people have really traded down in the global recession and a slow trade up is natural. It will help more wineries, distributors and importers sustain and offer great wines.

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Nick Oakley says:

January 14, 2013 at 8:18 am

Jamie – the price rise is entirely due to increases in excise duties. there is no trading up. Prices being paid ex cellars by British importers has fallen year on year for the last ten at least.

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Dom says:

January 14, 2013 at 10:52 am

The UK market hasn’t changed and is actually getting worse, it is a market has two very different faces.
The first one is a volume low value market due to supermarket market domination and bargain selling and the government continuous VAT and DUTY rape forcing the UK consumer to drink and buy cheap and terrible wines.
Just remember that a £5.03 bottle of wine has £2.74 of VAT & DUTY more then 54.4% of the value of the bottle of wine.

The second one is of the top and creme de la creme of wines.

The UK market is everyday looking more and more like the Russian market. A market of complete extremities. Very sad to see.

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