Changes to UK Alcohol Duty

Changes to UK Alcohol Duty

Alcohol duty is the tax on alcohol levied by HM Revenue and Customs and is accounted for by producers and importers of alcoholic products and included in the prices they charge.

From 1st February 2026, the government is uprating alcohol duty in line with inflation (Retail Price Index/ RPI) at 3.66%. Thanks to the foresight of our amazing suppliers, we’ve managed to get our hands on a big stash of plenty of your faves to stock up before these increases and will be honouring these lower prices until we have to buy again.

Previous Changes to Alcohol Duty 

The strength-based duty system implemented in  2023 remains the same. In August of that year, the previous alcohol duty ended, and duty on alcoholic drinks rose in line with inflation and according to their alcohol content. These changes were intended to simplify duty by removing the separate volume-based taxes on beer, cider, spirits and wine in favour of a blanket ABV based rise across all drinks, but we all know that's rarely the case. 

The good news for lovers of Pet Nats and orange wines was that the fermentation process of many natural wines means they often have a lower ABV, and wines under 11.5% won’t feel the effects of these rates quite as severely. But it's bad news for fans of big reds as higher ABV wines attract more duty. 

The cost of a bottle of wine.

These changes are a reminder of what the price on your bottle actually means, and why you still get so much more bang for your buck with bottles from small producers.

According to Noble Rot, despite being shipped in bulk and sold in cheaper packaging, only around 30p of a £5 UK supermarket bottle represents the actual wine, just 6% of the total price. That percentage increases drastically when you choose to spend a little more, and opt for wine from smaller producers. For example, the wine cost in a £10 bottle is around £2.24, 22% of the total price.

While this 20% tax hike on cost prices will unfortunately have to be reflected in the prices of our bottles, and in the coming months you’ll inevitably start to see a few pounds creep on here and there, it’s certainly no excuse for us to stick a few quid on every bottle on our shelves, and these increases in prices will only be where absolutely necessary.