Ever since we first went to La Poste with copies of our Gazette newsletter for friends and family, we’ve sold and delivered our wine direct to customers at home in the UK.
As Victoria Moore wrote in The Telegraph about Bauduc: “sales come from a broad base but the control is good for the producer and the sense of being involved in a thriving small agricultural business is rewarding for all.”
That’s true - and it also means that more of your money goes on the wine itself.
Below is a rough breakdown of where the money goes in the UK, comparing bottles sold through independent wine shops at £12.50, £15 and £20. It shows that, all things being equal, trading up generally gives you more wine for your money. We can argue over some of the finer details, but the principle remains the same.
Alongside is our direct-to-consumer model, using our wines at £12.50 and £15. We still have UK sales costs - credit cards, administration and running the website - and we include delivery in the price, which increases the cost on 12-bottle orders. Even so, it’s an interesting comparison.
Most of our orders come from repeat customers using their loyalty code, or from new customers with an introductory offer. Even after those discounts, twice as much remains for the actual wine in our classic range compared with a £12.50 bottle sold through a UK retailer. The bottles at higher price points remain favourable too.
Notes on costs and margins
The sales margins for UK wine merchants are not simply “profit”. They also cover staff, premises, business rates, sales and marketing, logistics and other operating costs. In many cases there is also a UK importer or distributor taking a margin before the wine even reaches the retailer.
We store our wine at London City Bond, the UK’s largest commercial bonded warehouse, alongside many UK wine merchants. We ship multiple pallets at a time from the château to keep transport costs down and maintain stock availability.
Handling and delivery costs vary enormously according to scale. A delivery to a wine merchant of 120-240 bottles might cost around 40p per bottle ex-VAT. By contrast, a 12-bottle home delivery costs us around £1.30 per bottle ex-VAT.
These deliveries cost more because they are handled by hand rather than repacked into courier-safe cartons. We experimented with repacking methods but experienced too many breakages, and customers generally prefer receiving wine in our smaller, original 6-bottle cases.
Our online volume discounts reflect the lower delivery cost per bottle on larger orders and are applied automatically at checkout.
UK duty on wine
Since 2023, the UK has become the only country in Europe to charge wine duty according to alcohol level. For wines above 13% alcohol, duty rates are now among the highest anywhere.
2026 UK duty rates are:
* 11% abv - £2.53
* 11.5% - £2.64
* 12% - £2.76
* 12.5% - £2.87
* 13% - £2.99
* 13.5% - £3.10
* 14% - £3.22
* 14.5% - £3.33
VAT is then charged on both the wine and the duty.
On a £12 bottle, £2 goes in VAT and roughly £3 in duty, leaving about £7 for everything else: the farming, the wine itself, bottling, shipping, storage, delivery and sales margins.
That may sound tight, but it compares favourably with cheaper bottles. On a £9 bottle at 13% abv, £4.50 (50%) remains after tax; on a £6 supermarket bottle at 13%, after £3 duty and £1 VAT there's just £2 left.