France - Bringing back wine

lucasharrison

Hi everyone

Getting ferry to St Malo in a few weeks, and plan to maximise my allowance of wine to bring back (18l per person).

I know there are duty free shops on board, but I assume it's cheaper to just buy from a local supermarket, which isn't then duty free?

Any tips appreciated.

Thanks

Luke

DullGreyGuy

Supermarkets have traditionally been cheaper. 

Carrefour you can see their prices online as they offer Click & Collect services etc, sure other supermarkets will too. Brittany dont list their duty free prices online but you can check on your way out. 

Either wine will be free of UK duty unless you exceed the limit or they challenge its for personal consumption. 

Brie

We bought some calvados on Brittany Ferries and found the same stuff cheaper in a supermarket so I think the "duty free" thing is a bit of a scam myself.  

eskbanker

Brie said:

We bought some calvados on Brittany Ferries and found the same stuff cheaper in a supermarket so I think the "duty free" thing is a bit of a scam myself.  

Not sure about it being a scam - it's factually correct to state that it's duty-free, but many seem to assume that this means it's the cheapest place to buy, which is often not the case, but if they actually claimed it was, that might be different.

P.S. Given your username, I imagine that you'd be bringing cheese back too!

TMSG

Brie said:

We bought some calvados on Brittany Ferries and found the same stuff cheaper in a supermarket so I think the "duty free" thing is a bit of a scam myself.  

Can't speak about BF but we regularly travel the Newhaven/Dieppe and Dover/Calais routes with DFDS and the wine is sometimes cheaper than in French supermarkets and sometimes more expensive. What's definitely cheaper is the stronger stuff, ie Whisk(e)y, Ricard (my favourite), Gin, Vodka etc. If you can find four 1L bottles in their mix and match 4 for £40 promo, that's much cheaper than in a French supermarket. I sometimes buy Beefeater, Famous Grouse Smoky Black, Ballantines and Ricard (all 1L bottles) for £40 and these would be around £60/70 in French supermarkets.
OTOH, their sweets (ie DFDS's) are mostly way too expensive, much more than in supermarkets.

phatbear

why not check prices on the way out then head to a supermarket and compare and contrast. 

i was in normandy for the d-day anniversary and bought the FIL a bottle of calvados which i was going to visit the vineyard to buy direct but actually found it cheaper in a local towns off licence so its always worth a shop around