It makes you wonder what you’re drinking?

Several people responded to our blog the other week about hidden costs and drinks packages. It got us thinking: what are you really paying for with a drinks package and how much money is going on wine?

The basic drinks package at a local country hotel is £32.50 per person for two glasses of champagne (one for the reception, one for the toast) plus two glasses of wine with the meal.

Of the £32.50 the first 20% (£5.42) goes straight to the Chancellor in the form of VAT leaving £27.08 for your wine.  It doesn’t sound too bad until you look at the prices for equivalent wines and champagnes from local wine wholesalers - £4.50 for house wine per bottle and £14.50 for house champagne.   

Allowing six glasses per bottle means the price of the wine itself is only £1.50; the champagne just £4.16.  Of course, the venue could be using better quality, or equally be negotiating a better price than listed.  Either way, somewhere between £5.50 and £6.00 would seem to be spent on the wine itself for which the hotel is charging £27.10 plus VAT.  This is a mark-up of 450%!

So how much wine would you get for your £27.10 given that 48% is duty - £2.16 of each bottle of wine; £2.77 of each bottle of champagne?  According to Bibendum (see the diagram below) after duty, mark-ups, transport, and packaging etc. A £5 bottle of wine is, in fact, only 37p of wine!  So, for the hotel’s two glasses of wine the total cost of the actual wine is just 12p.  In other words, 6p per glass!

At The Pilgrims Rest, we do not have drinks packages.  You can bring your own alcohol and we won’t charge you any corkage.  This way even if you bought your wine for £10 per bottle you could save 75% compared to a drinks package.  It gives you the flexibility to buy your alcohol when there are great offers on or even pop over to France to stock up. 
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To find out how you can have your exclusive venue and enjoy significant savings, please contact us on 07552873448 or venue@pilgrimsrestbattle.co.uk.