Corks Out backs Oz Clarke's BBC Watchdog report with charts showing wine value

By Richard Siddle

Published: 14 October, 2013

Corks Out, the north west independent wine merchant, is keeping the momentum going about the real cost of wine in different priced bottles of wine, as highlighted by wine critic, Oz Clarke, on last week's BBC Watchdog programme, with a series of charts it has produced to highlight the issue to its customers.

Clarke has received widespread support and praise across the trade for outlining on BBC Watchdog in detail the disparancies in the real value of wine contained in different priced bottles of wine and how by spending a little more, consumers are getting more wine for their money, when costs such as duty, VAT and logistics are factored in. His report also challenged the half price wine deals being offered by the major supermarkets and questioned whether they were offering consumers the true value they claim. He even suggested many of the £10 wines being discounted down by half are not worth £10 in the first place.

His findings were backed by many in the trade, paticularly amongst independent wine merchants, as reported by Harpers.co.uk last week here.

Ted Sandbach, managing director, of the Oxford Wine Company, outlined his thoughts and support for Oz Clarke in this column for Harpers.co.uk.

Corks out 6.99

Corks Out first produced a series of charts, under the banner, What's in Your Bottle, three years ago which break down the true cost of wine in different priced bottles and how much of the value is swallowed up by duty and other costs.

It has produced charts covering bottles of wine priced at: £4.99, £6.99, £9.99, £14.99; £19.99; and £30.99.

Ruth Yates, managing director of Corks Out told Harpers.co.uk: "This is something we have used in the store for about three years and it has helped us to explain to customers why spending an extra £1 or two gives them that much more quality, it has also helped them to understand how much the government take and that it's not all retailer profit. Customers have been shocked and it has certainly helped to increase our average bottle price. We felt that this would be good to highlight on our website too and we have not been afraid of letting customers know how much margin we take out of a bottle of wine, we are classed as luxury goods without the luxury margin, can you imagine this on a piece of furniture or clothing?"