News

May 16, 2008

English Wines Group Intends To Compete Head On With The Grand Crus Of Champagne And Chablis, But Not Quite Yet

By Charles Wyatt

There are three words we want to dismiss early in any discussion of English Wines. The first two are global warming and the third is duty. Townies try to insert the first two words into the future of any activity agricultural, but farmers and, in this case, wine growers, know that global warming is a tax-raising scam invented by politicians and the scientists in their pay. Duty is another tax-raising scam and as we are supposed to be members of what used to be called a Common Market, there is no reason why the playing field should be made uneven vis-a-vis French wine producers. French growers pay a pittance in duty, but in this country it amounts to around £1.50 per bottle with VAT charged additionally on top of that. This duty is levied on French wine sold in England, but French growers are not dependent on the UK market except for champagne.

No point in competing with the French, or any other producers for that matter, at the cheap end of the market as there is no chance. As if that wasn’t enough, it’s ridiculous to hear that small English Winemakers should be harassed out of their minds by bureaucrats who appear to think that they have gone into the business simply to evade duty.  One can visualise the anger on managing director Frazer Thompson’s face at the other end of the telephone as he talks about the waste of time and...