UK wine duty is becoming the highest in Europe

UK wine duty is becoming the highest in Europe

The chancellor recently announced a 15% cut in business rates for pubs and grassroots music venues, however the price of alcohol in pubs and supermarkets is set to increase.

The price of wine, spirits, lagers, and ciders is set to rise after the alcohol duty increase came into effect on 1 February 2026.

The latest RPI tax hike, set at 3.66%, will mean duty on a bottle of wine at 14.5% abv, has gone up by £1.10 a bottle since the new duty regime came in August 2023.

For a still wine at 14.5% the UK has now topped the tax table with the highest duty rate in Europe according to the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA).

It’s a similar position for spirits, nearly two thirds of the price of an averaged priced bottle of gin at 37.5% abv is tax, while duty alone in the same two- and half-year period has risen by £1.38.

Since the introduction of the UK’s new taxation system, duty on beer and spirits has risen by over 18%, for higher strength wines the increase has been even greater, and duty has risen by over 49% on a 14.5% abv wine.

The WSTA said ‘For the financial year to date total alcohol duty receipts are down 1.4%, spirits are down by the most at a massive 2.4%, beer is down 1.4%, and wine down 2%.’

‘If alcohol receipts remain 1.4% lower for the last quarter of this financial year, total receipts are estimated to come in at around £12.4bn, which will be £180m lower in 2025-26 than in 2024-25.’

‘For the nation’s wine and spirit sector the complexities of price changes, especially for wine, which is now taxed by strength, mean more red tape headaches ahead. Add to this all the other costs including, national insurance contributions, business rates and waste packaging taxes, businesses have no choice but to increase prices in order to keep afloat, which unfortunately means consumers are going to take the hit once again’.