The discerning drinker: why we're paying less for wine

Something worrying is happening to our wine-buying habits. The amount we're spending on wine in the bottle is falling - and under £10, you pretty much get what you pay for.

It's bad enough that the average price British consumers paid for still wine last year was just £4.47 a bottle. I can think of about three wines I'd pay to drink at that price. Worse, while that was up 31p on two years earlier, duty jumped 23p in the same period, to £1.69 a bottle (plus 4p VAT on the duty hike). The remaining 4p extra we paid per bottle was far outweighed by the slide of the pound, rising inflation and commodity prices. Last month VAT went up to 20 per cent, too: taxes now account for more than half the price of a £4.99 bottle.

Take out taxes, packaging, transport and marketing costs and retailer profit margin for that £4.99 bottle and you're left with about 40p to pay for the wine. And that proportion is shrinking.

For example, according to Loire-based broker Charles Sydney, over the past five years the average wholesale price that supermarkets pay Loire producers for a £5.99 bottle has dropped from around 2.75 to 1.75.

One result: the sub-£6 market is now dominated by interchangeable, mass-produced wines: not necessarily bad, just extremely predictable and boring.

I don't have a solution other than just spending more. But if you go to £7 or £8, the extra is almost certainly paying for better grapes and winemaking.

Monte La Sarda Garnacha Viñas Viejas 2009, VDT Bajo Aragón (Oddbins, £7.49, or £5.99 as part of a mixed case of 12). It's a humble Vino de la Tierra (vin de pays) from an obscure part of Aragón, yet this red boasts bright, concentrated fruit from old grenache vines.

Cellier de Majorine, Pied de Nez 2009, IGP Pays de l'Aude (Lea and Sandeman, £7.95, or £6.95 as part of a mixed case of 12). That a Languedoc red such as this is nearly £8 is a sign of rising prices. But it's worth it: sweet, smoky fruit and chewy tannins - attractive.

Paul Mas Vermentino 2009, IGP Pays d'Oc (Majestic, £7.99). Paul Mas is one The Languedoc's bigger independent producers and negociants but its wines are above average - as with this pleasantly clean, fresh, zippy white.