Wine down the drain

As we browse the shelves of our friendly local supermarket, intent on stocking our seldom adequate ‘cellars’, how often do we spare a thought for the economics behind what we are buying? Does it occur to us that if a bottle is shown priced at €2.59, only a fraction of that figure is represented by the actual wine?

We can almost guess what features in the calculation: the cost of the glass, cork, capsule, labels, transport, etc, surpasses by a factor of many x’s the value of the wine, and what it has cost the bodega to maintain hectares of vines during twelve months. There is also VAT (21%), retailer margin of 30-50%, distributor/wholesaler 15%-25%, winery 15-25%. Then the retailer must pay the cost of transport, promotion, etc.

The end result has a familiar ring about it: when tomatoes are piled high in the shop and selling at three euros a kilo, the farmer who grew them and mollycoddled them until it was time to load the lorry ends up with 10% of the shop price. The intermediaries make the main profit and have no risk – unless a glut suddenly materialises, something that happens only a couple of times a year.

• Aire 2023

• The ever-reliable Protos bodega has delivered once again, this time with a delightful rosado from the Cigales region, ready for drinking and at a more than acceptable price. Around ten euros.

When the harvesters ventured into the vineyards last autumn many bodegas had little idea where they would store the resulting wine, and the sad act of pouring it down the drain was witnessed by a tearful few.

So at least some consciences were appeased by watching it end up as a pile of broken glass in a wet carpark.