Perhaps not strictly about Umbria - but a reminder of why it is so easy to have a half a litre of a decent house red for €4 round here. It's because wine duty in Italy is precisely zero (it is a shocking 3p per bottle in France!). Compare this with UK duty at £2.23..
This chart demonstrates why a £4.95 bottle in the UK contains around 25p of wine..the same bottle in Italy would be under £2.
Of course, the more you move up the quality scale, the less the UK duty matters (eg £8 vs £10 is not so great, and £28 vs £30 is hardly worth noticing..)
This will affect you in two ways..
1) you will immediately increase what you spend on a bottle of wine in the UK and thus dramatically improve your quality and experience
or
2) you will want to move to France or Italy for the cheap wine...
Possibly..both?
This chart demonstrates why a £4.95 bottle in the UK contains around 25p of wine..the same bottle in Italy would be under £2.
Of course, the more you move up the quality scale, the less the UK duty matters (eg £8 vs £10 is not so great, and £28 vs £30 is hardly worth noticing..)
This will affect you in two ways..
1) you will immediately increase what you spend on a bottle of wine in the UK and thus dramatically improve your quality and experience
or
2) you will want to move to France or Italy for the cheap wine...
Possibly..both?
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