€30 for a bottle of wine? There are plenty of good ones for a tenner, Gerry
WHAT fine taste buds and deep pockets you must have, Gerry Adams.
Oh that €30 was my go-to price point for a Saturday night bottle. My palate may savour it, but not my purse.
With Irish excise duty on wine the highest in the EU, there is an incontrovertible argument to avoid bottom of the bargain bin offerings at what looks like a tempting €5-€6. The further up the price scale you go, the more of your hard-earned euro goes on what is inside the bottle, rather than to the taxman.
On a budget-friendly €9 bottle, the combined excise and tax amounts to €4.87 – 54pc of the price. On a €24 bottle, the €7.68 excise/tax combo makes up a much lower 32pc.
There are plenty of respectable wines out there just under a tenner, particularly if you keep an eye out for tried and trusted bottles in the supermarket or local wine shop. One that readily springs to mind is the clean, crisp Picpoul de Pinet, often on offer at €9, and even less, if not never much more than that.
Move up to the €12-€20 range, and into my wine world, and the joy of going back to the off-licence for an old favourite, or asking if there is “anything interesting”. There’s always plenty.
In a quick visit to a wine shop in Killarney yesterday, I didn’t see much around €30. The shelves were aimed at taxpayers who spend €12-€20 a bottle. My eyes lit on a Chateau de Tracy 2013, not the best vintage in Loire Valley, but a blue chip Pouilly Fume producer. There was even €2 change from €30.
The weekend is upon us. You are missing so much Mr Adams, if you haven’t joined the national sport of sampling the ever-expanding offerings in discount chains, such as Aldi and Lidl. Enjoy your €30 bottle. I’ll be heading to Aldi to check out Te Haupapa, an €11.99 Pinot Noir from New Zealand’s Central Otago region, which has landed on our shelves. I want to see if it lives up to the impressive reviews.