The 'Vinonomics' of a wine bottle

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Something that has come up on here before.

But quite remarkable how much the market for wine in the UK is distorted through tax and duty.

This skew results in a £5 bottle only having 47p worth of wine in it (around 9% of the cost) while a £20 bottle has £7.17 worth of wine in it (around 36% of the cost).

So paying x4 for the bottle in cash terms gives you almost x15 to spend on the wine itself in cash terms.

kinger101

Being such a subjective thing, I don't think people who enjoy £5 bottles of wine will see the £20 bottle significantly more enjoyable. Likewise, I suspect if people who usually pay £20 a bottle were give blind tastings against £5 and £10 bottles, some of they might find they were not getting good value. I think everyone has their sweet spot. I tend to find £5 bottles nasty, and although I might pay £16 for a bottle on occasions, I've rarely encountered one that I thought was better than something I might pay £9 for.

antrobus

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

...This skew results in a £5 bottle only having 47p worth of wine in it (around 9% of the cost) while a £20 bottle has £7.17 worth of wine in it (around 36% of the cost)....

I shall be predictably contrarian and dispute the claim that a "£20 bottle has £7.17 worth of wine in it", and assert that a £20 bottle of wine has the same 47p worth of wine in it as a £5 bottle. The difference being that the producer of the £20 bottle isn't as efficient a producer of wine as the maker of the £5 bottle, and is hoping that by charging you £20 they can bamboozle you into thinking that you are actually getting something different for your money.

antrobus

kinger101 wrote: »

Being such a subjective thing, I don't think people who enjoy £5 bottles of wine will see the £20 bottle significantly more enjoyable. Likewise, I suspect if people who usually pay £20 a bottle were give blind tastings against £5 and £10 bottles, some of they might find they were not getting good value. I think everyone has their sweet spot. I tend to find £5 bottles nasty, and although I might pay £16 for a bottle on occasions, I've rarely encountered one that I thought was better than something I might pay £9 for.

Five pounds for a bottle of wine? I'm thinking more like something in the range of £3 to £3.50 a bottle, when the Tesco 25% off promotion is running, and there's a decent price match with ASDA that I can exploit. Although I'd stretch to £3.75 for a bottle of Tesco Finest prosecco.:)

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

antrobus wrote: »

Five pounds for a bottle of wine? I'm thinking more like something in the range of £3 to £3.50 a bottle, when the Tesco 25% off promotion is running, and there's a decent price match with ASDA that I can exploit. Although I'd stretch to £3.75 for a bottle of Tesco Finest prosecco.:)

With taste buds like that you could just dump some sugar and yeast in a packet of grape juice and hope for the best.....;)

Maybe run the end result through a Sodastream when you want a bottle of 'fizz'. :whistle:

kinger101

antrobus wrote: »

I shall be predictably contrarian and dispute the claim that a "£20 bottle has £7.17 worth of wine in it", and assert that a £20 bottle of wine has the same 47p worth of wine in it as a £5 bottle. The difference being that the producer of the £20 bottle isn't as efficient a producer of wine as the maker of the £5 bottle, and is hoping that by charging you £20 they can bamboozle you into thinking that you are actually getting something different for your money.

I think you're partly right in the production costs, but I can assure you that if you've made something a retailer is only willing to pay 47p a bottle for, it's not going to win any medals.

kinger101

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

With taste buds like that you could just dump some sugar and yeast in a packet of grape juice and hope for the best.....;)

Maybe run the end result through a Sodastream when you want a bottle of 'fizz'. :whistle:

The grape juice is an extravagance. A dash of Ribena and it'll be fine.

kabayiri

Do I detect sour grapes in this thread?

(with a hint of lemony aftertang and woody aroma)

michaels

Here ya go Hamish

Reduced to clear wine £1.50 Asda

kabayiri

When a well known lager decided some time back to rebrand as premium they spent no more on the drinkable content but instead invested heavily in tooling for the fancy embossed logo.

Sometimes, paying more doesn't improve the content I guess.

mystic_trev

Unfortunately my palate is unable to taste the difference between a £10 bottle of wine and a £50 bottle of wine. It can (however) definitely taste the difference between a £5 and a £10 bottle!

One of my few regrets is not having a 'sophisticated palate' for wine tasting