Why is wine soooo much more expensive in UK and US?

Mi e' parso che snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com abbia scritto:

Maybe wine is consumed more in the Netherlands than in UK/USA and so those markets see wine as a "specialty" food, with consequent high pricing. It also maybe that the wine commercial system, in the Netherlands, is less greedy than the UK and US ones? This may be due to more free competition, which is minimal in markets ruled by few big operators as in UK and USA. Sure, the sea transport makes costs rise when a spayard exports in UK or USA instead of The Netherlands, but a difference of more than twice the price is too much to come only from shipping costs.

BTW, I have been in the Netherlands many times before, and always found you have a very wide choice of wines also in small supermarkets, and this is wonderful. I never missed a tour to the nearest Albert Hein :)

It *is* a form of protectionism, but not the sort that the WTO can attack. In the US, a wine passes through 3 different sets of hands (at least) going from winemaker to consumer: importer, distributor, retailer. This so-called "3-tier" system greatly inflates the price since there is little to no pressure on the distributor to reduce his profit margin (because more and more there is a single major distributor in each state that has a virtual, legal monopoly), so greed at that level is rampant.

However, note that a wine from California sold in the other 49 states still must usually pass through 2 of those 3 tiers, including the dreaded distributor's, so their prices are also high (this is compounded by the atypical situation that wines sold by the winery are priced at full retail price (i.e., much higher than the price they charge the distributor).

HTH Mark Lipton

What you say is true, Mark, but I think the weak dollar vs. strong Euro also makes the situation worse here in the US.

Dan-O

Salut/Hi Dan The Man,

le/on 15 Jun 2005 09:25:40 -0700, tu disais/you said:-

Bordeaux 2000 sold en primeur when the dollar was stronger? A wine offered en primeur at a (relatively) high prive in Francs here in France, was offered at almost that price in dollars in the US to collectors. Don't tell me that a hike of 7 times is due to anything other than greed on the part of monopolies.

Yes Ian, greed is a HUGE part of it. And I don't see the situation changing anytime soon - the distributors and wholesalers have powerful voices in Washington, to the detriment of consumers. Also, the anti-France boycott has just about run its course, which will cause an increase in demand.

Dan-O