Wine with Leslie: Punitive pricing for wine lovers in Budget 2024?

"Our punitive taxes on wine are a tax on the small farmers of our EU neighbours - beer meanwhile, is utterly dominated by multinationals but taxed less severely."

Pic: iStock

The annual Wine Market Report 2022 compiled by Drinks Ireland is out, and as usual, it gives interesting insights into what wines Irish people are drinking, and how much money we give to the Government.

Ireland remains the country with the highest excise rates in the EU — €3.19 per bottle. This is added to the price of a bottle of wine before it enters a shop, and then the overall price has 23% VAT added on top — a tax on a tax. A bottle of Sparkling Wine has an excise of €6.37 — the Government doubles the tax on celebratory fizzy wine for no particular reason other than to suck a little more joy out of our lives.