Wine drinkers in the UK are being warned of price rises that are set to come into effect next year.

Retailers including Majestic, Laithwaites, The Wine Society and Cambridge Wine Merchants are among those with a poster campaign warning of the hikes.

Excise duty is currently £2.67 on all wines between 11.5% ABV (alcohol by volume) and 14.5% ABV.

This so-called easement was introduced as part of Rishi Sunak's new duty system last year, but is sent to end on February 1, 2025, Sky News reports.

How will wine duty work from February 2025?

The current easement will be replaced with up to 30 different payable amounts according to the strength of the wine. 

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association says that for a bottle of wine at 14.5% ABV.

This will see wine duty increase from £2.67 a bottle to £3.09.

The association says the new government "has the opportunity to commit to keeping the easement at the budget on 30 October".

However, at the time of writing, there has been no indication yet that Labour is prepared to meet this demand.

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In an email to customers earlier this month, Majestic and Cambridge Wine Merchants warned: "At the time they launched the policy, the Treasury had a stated aim to create a duty system that would be simpler and fairer for wine businesses like ours to administer. 

"Yet, as an industry, we firmly believe the system that is set to be introduced fails on both counts – it is more complex and will be much more costly.

"Businesses like ours will need to invest six-figure sums just to develop the systems required to handle the new approach, with ongoing administrative costs likely to run into similar sums on an annual basis."

The letter goes on: "Most concerningly for you as discerning wine drinkers, the quality and choice of wine available for you to purchase is likely to be negatively impacted. 

"There is a genuine risk that the producers of your favourite wine will stop shipping it to the UK entirely, due to the additional administrative burden that will be involved in exporting wine to Britain."

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When asked for comment a spokesperson for the Treasury said: "In August 2023 the Government introduced reforms to alcohol duty so that products are taxed in proportion to their alcoholic strength, not volume. The reforms aimed to modernise and simplify the system, to prioritise public health and incentivise consumption of lower strength products.  

"To help the wine industry adapt to the new duty system, the current, temporary duty easement was introduced as a transitional measure, which was intended to allow time for wine producers to adapt to calculating duty based on alcohol by volume.  

"By 1 February 2025, the wine industry will have had over two years to adapt to the new strength-based system."