The Great 'Wine Tart' Hunt

DuncanMiller · 15 February 2006 at 2:39PM

Hi there my first post on the forums, have been following the news letters quite a lot but decide to sign up!

One option is if you use kitkash and sign up to virgin one they give you £25 off your first order. This can only be applied to a case were £60 or more though.

I have to agree with some of the other posters though, the best way to get cheap wine is watch out in the supermarkets for special offers. I find tesco alway have at least one "expensive" wine on special offer at half price or £3/£4 off. Combine that with their buy 6 bottles and save 10% offer and you get a fairly good deal.

Duncan

purplemoon · 15 February 2006 at 3:46PM

I find the best way is to buy from supermarkets- you can then get the pick of the offers and choose from their range. I do a Tesco delivery very rarely (and when ther's a good voucher going!) then I get whatever wines are half price (lots at the moment), plus tins, value fizzy water, anything else heavy. With the voucher, the points, etc works out well. I used Co-Op wine before they finished, and again you could pickand choose...
There was a very good deal here once for a Virgin wine club with a voucher- worked out less than £2 a bottle. I got 2, and as some of the wine was bad they refunded me for several bottles- at full price!! I also sometimes get giordanos wine if its a deal that comes with Italian foodstuff!
My mum has just done a wine club no-no... She's moved house and forget to tell them- its been delivered to the new people (who accepted). They really are horrid, horrid people- even if she gets a refund or another case its horrible they got such a treat!

smegster_2 · 15 February 2006 at 3:54PM

Official Insert:

Tesco currently has a 20% off all wine and champagne promotion (it ends 26 Feb). MoneySaver Smegster has spotted a great deal there on Cono Sur Chilean Pinot Noir here. We've moved it further up so you can find it straight away

Back to the original post.....

A £2.99 bottle of wine is made up of:
VAT 44.5p
Duty £1.26
Retailers profit 64p
suppliers profit 10p
Then when you take in the cost of glass, label, closure, cardboard case, transportation cost (and if the wine comes from outside the EU then it is liable for another tax of 9p a bottle)

This leaves roughly 13 pence which is to cover the cost of the wine and the wineries profit. On this basis how good do you really think it can be?

As the duty is a fixed cost then spend another pound a bottle and you are looking at about 70p for wine. The more you spend the more is available for the actual wine.

This is meant to be about saving money not just buying cheap rubbish isn't it?
Don't get me wrong I'm not being snobby about wine but before you go buying the cheapest thing around ask yourself why you are buying a bottle of wine in the first place. If it's to get drunk the buy a really cheap bottle of vodka and be done with it.

If it's a tasty beverage you are after then flavour has to be as important a consideration as price.

The trick is to haggle. Independent wine shops (specialists not offies) will make at least 30% profit on return and will definately have some good £3.99 and £4.99 wines. Either buy a few and try them or ask for advice or just be plain cheeeky and ask to taste. Once you've settled upon a wine then haggle, remember that you won't really get a good deal unless you agree to buy a minimum 12 bottles. Also keep an eye out for bin-ends as this is a great way to buy a wine for much, much less than it should be.

BEWARE!! BOGOF's in the supermarkets or anywhere else for that matter are too good to be true. As the Supermarkets like to protect their margin (on wine this is between 30% and 45%) they get the producer to fund these promotions. Because this has meant that the producer was running at quite a hefty loss they have found a way round it. Kumala Zenith and Hardys Crest are the best examples, these are wines that sell at £7.99 but are regularly sold at 50% off or BOGOF. In reality these are mediocre £3.99 wines dressed up a bit and then doubled up just to reduce. You think you've saved a fortune yet really you've just been taken for a dummy.

Sorry if this is a little long winded but there is unfortunately plenty more where that came from.

Just to show that this isn't an anti-supermarket rant follow this link for a REAL bargain http://www.tesco.com/winestore/controller.aspx?Bc=70032+60192&Bc2=70032%7cSpecial+offers*60192%7cRed&R=3113600&sid=100D700C5872

--Tony-- · 15 February 2006 at 4:21PM

smegster wrote:

A £2.99 bottle of wine is made up of:
VAT 44.5p
Duty £1.26
Retailers profit 64p
suppliers profit 10p
Then when you take in the cost of glass, label, closure, cardboard case, transportation cost (and if the wine comes from outside the EU then it is liable for another tax of 9p a bottle)

This leaves roughly 13 pence which is to cover the cost of the wine and the wineries profit. On this basis how good do you really think it can be?

This does not really stack up on good quality wine that is on offer at half price as the other poster was saying as your really getting a £6 bottle for £3.

I do agree with you if the RRP is £2.99

theloft · 15 February 2006 at 5:17PM

I've usually found the wine from Wine Clubs to be of excellent quality and am also a member of The Wine Society. But you can't get away from the fact that the Supermarkets buying power gives them a huge advantage and if you know what you are looking for and where to buy, then if money saving is your priority - you cannot beat them on price. So for excellent details of current wine offers available in Supermarkets (including Majestic Wine Warehouses), I rely on our very own Quaffers Offers.

Have a look here : http://www.quaffersoffers.co.uk/

smegster_2 · 15 February 2006 at 5:25PM

"This does not really stack up on good quality wine that is on offer at half price as the other poster was saying as your really getting a £6 bottle for £3."

Half price wine is make believe, do you really think that the supermarkets sell below cost? Just one look at Tescos profits sorts that out. When was the last time you saw a wine that is half price on regular sale in a supermarket?

They put a small amount of stock into a small number of stores for 28 days at £6 and then roll it out across the rest of the stores at 50% off this stops them getting in trouble. Be honest when was the last time you bought a £6 wine at 50% off and thought to yourself that it was definately worth the full price?

steadybagger · 15 February 2006 at 6:36PM

smial1966 wrote:

Hi,

This is my first post and I hope wine lovers use it to bag a bargain case of wine! Laithwaites offer new customers a £20 voucher redeemable against any case of wine costing £64.99 or more, the code is LWSV246 and needs to be entered at the payment stage, a direct link is below:-

http://www.laithwaites.co.uk/xsite.pasp?xsite=voucher_mp_140904.xml&imi=tradedoubler&mrc=kr96

Interestingly Laithwaites system isn't sophisticated enough to determine whether you're a new customer or not, so as long as your case costs £64.99 or more, you can use this voucher every time you order!

I'm on my fifth case of discounted wine using this code and have quaffed some splendid vintages at reasonable cost.

Cheers!
Andy.

Is that an affiliated link, how much do you make off each order?

Wakehurst_2 · 15 February 2006 at 6:59PM

Interesting posts buts let take a moment to think about all the thoughts:
1. There is never going to be one definitive place to buy wine - vintages sell out, makers turn bad, or turn good, fashion can kill a strong selling wine dead, or again a wine can suddanly become 'hot', retailers come and go and retailing itself will drive prices to shift wines or make profit.
Therefore shop around and use all the information you get to bag that bargin - all outlets are worth a try and with Virgin and Laithwaites if you don't like what you have bought call them and send it back they will replace it at their cost... you never have to drink a dud bottle with these guys.
2. The cost of the bottle of wine is pretty fixed wherever you are in the world. But the tax payable is vastly different and, of course here in the UK its very high (consisting as it does of duty payable on the importing of the wine and on top of this Vat at retail - you can try British wine to kill one price increase!). So here is the (approx) breakdown:
Retail cost: £2.99
Tax (duty and VAT): £1.60 to the government (in France it's £0.02p).
Bottle, label, cork: £0.36
Total left for the wine itself: £1.03 (in France it would be £2.61 so it's still worthwhile stocking up in France when you go).

Interestingly, here is the model for a £5.99 bottle of wine:
Retail cost: £5.99
Tax (as above): £2.27
Bottle etc.: £0.36
Total left for wine itself: £3.36

So your extra £3 has bought you £2.33 extra in quality of wine... a great deal?

The question is therefore at what point do you think the wine makers are making a living and surviving or the supermarket is profitering at their expense? If a supermarket is selling wine cheap, it is having a huge impact on the lives of those making the wine as prices are forced down (as it is for all the produce they sell). It is also worth thinking about the bargins to be had around the £5-£8 bottle mark - this is where the quality sits and the best deals are.

Laithwaites have, at the moment their Poll Winners cases - 17,000 votes from their customers in a case of wine around the £5/bottle mark - with the new customer discount code mentioned by another member you are laughing. These are wines that taste twice the amount, for me that's a bargin.

I hope this helps you all...

boxxsquare · 15 February 2006 at 8:54PM

Wakehurst...........wake up. I am not sure you could have got more wrong if you'd tried.

1. With your calculations of what is left for wine on a 2.99 bottle you have made no allowance whatsoever for retailer profit margins. If you look at Smegsters post earlier you will see a pretty accurate calculation.

2. French duty is just 1p a bottle yet French VAT (TVA) is 20% also because wine is generally a little cheaper on the shelf in France the margins made by the retailers is a little higher.

3. the cost of a bottle of wine is not fixed. It i a manufactured product just like power tools, and the country of origin has a huge impact upon its actual production cost and local selling cost. For example in Chile the vineyrds have been there longer and the labour is ludicrously cheap, compare this with Oz where they have a minimum wage not too far from our own and the cost of planting all thoe vineyards is pretty steep to sy the least, plus they have a home market for consumption. As such it costs a lot less to produce a bottle of wine in Chile than Australia and it sells for a lot less in Chile (based on equivalent quality by the way)

4. Buying english wine does not remove the duty element and remember how expensive land is in the UK and you will actually pay more for a pretty dull bottle of English wine than you will for a delicious bottle from any of the other major wine countries.

5. Although you would reasonably expect to get a better bottle of wine for between £5-£8 in reality you have just the same chance of selecting a duffer from either the wine clubs or the supermarkets or anywhere else for that matter, at this price as you do at £3.99 or £39.99.

OriginalBargainHunter · 15 February 2006 at 11:27PM

Would like to add my recommendation for Laithwaites. I bought a 4 Seasons case of red wine just recently. They have an introductory offer of £39.99 for 12 bottles of either red, white or mixture of both, and they threw in an extra 3 bottles as an introductory offer. they also threw in a very good sommeliers corkscrew which must be worth a few quid on its own. I can definitely recommend the red wines!

The Great 'Wine Tart' Hunt

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