Wine lovers miss out on fall in inflation

While the recent drop in the rate of consumer inflation in the UK has been widely welcomed, wine drinkers have not reaped the benefits.

Yesterday the Office for National Statistics announced that overall annual inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index, was just 0.5% for the month of December 2014, well below the notional 2% target and now below the rise in average weekly earnings.

However, British wine drinkers have not felt the benefit of this drop in the cost of living, with inflation on wine rising by 3.4% for the same period.

Tim Wilson, managing director of the Wilson Drinks Report said: “Yet again it is the wine drinker who is having to pay higher prices for their favourite tipple. A range of factors, including the amount of supermarket discounts and the increase in duty on wine, means that wine prices continue to rise. The average bottle of wine for drinking at home now costs around £5.36, up 2.9% on the same period last year. Spirit drinkers who kept an eye out for sharper prices were able to pick up some great deals on litres of vodka, gin and whisky over the Christmas period.”

In comparison, inflation on beer and spirits sat comfortably at 0.5%, meaning that it was only wine drinkers who missed out.

Wilson added: “The wine industry has started its campaign to get Chancellor Osborne to treat wine in a similar fashion to the beer category, which has enjoyed two successive cuts in beer duty. However in an election year we feel it is unlikely that Osborne will prioritise wine duty cuts over more obvious election sweeteners such as reductions in inheritance tax which killed off Gordon Brown’s snap election plans a few years ago.”