BRINKMANSHIP during the pre-Christmas trade agreement discussions between the United Kingdom and the European Union may have yielded the much-trumpeted prospect of tariff-less trade, but it remains to be seen how this will work in practice. What is certain is that the wine trade and the UK’s 33 million wine drinkers will be vulnerable to price rises and shortages in post-Brexit Britain.

New customs processes, new labelling rules and new import certification procedures will only add to costs already inflated by the UK’s excise duty, first introduced in 1643 to fund Parliamentary forces and hated ever since. It is still the highest (and most Byzantine) in Europe, 11 times higher than Spain or Germany, for instance. Since 2014 alone, duty on still wine has risen by 12 per cent – much more than hikes in either beer or spirits – and it remains still higher than both.