Aldi Muscadet Sur Lie, Loire, France — €8.49

SORRY to mention the war but this is pre-budget submission time and talking to some of those wine trade in recent weeks reminded me how difficult Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, has made it for small wine shops.

Revenue demands excise payment from importers immediately when wine leaves the bonded warehouse for delivery to shops, and with the credit difficulties imposed by the banks these days this means everyone needs payment sooner and sooner. Inevitably this puts an extra squeeze on small off licences, added to the difficulties they already have in competing against below-cost selling in the multiples. The independent Irish wine trade will continue to struggle unless there are changes made to our punitive tax regime. However this week there was some good news with Cork-based Curious Wines (www.curiouswines.ie), run by brothers Mike and Matt Kane, announcing plans to open a new wine warehouse just off the M7 in Tougher Business Park near Naas. The new shop has been successfully crowd-funded through Linked Finance using Curious Wines’ own customer database.

Curious Wines’ model of engaging with their customers through newsletters, facebook and twitter is one that all small businesses need to imitate and might be a way to take control back from the corporate and a way to source financing for cash-strapped businesses.