The reasons for the rise in wine prices in the new year have become known

Champagne before the holiday should be purchased for future use

Moscow is already engulfed in the pre-holiday December atmosphere, in which, as in the old song, “champagne flows like a river.” And this champagne is worth buying for future use. According to expert forecasts, in the coming year 2024, prices for imported wines may increase by up to 30%, and for Russian wines – by at least 10%. Moreover, inexpensive drinks will suffer first – perhaps this segment will simply disappear, and prices for wine and champagne will start at 600-700 rubles. MK found out what is happening in liquor stores now.

Let’s look into a store on Arbat, where they sell products from several Russian wineries – mainly located in Crimea. The range and prices once again confirm that it’s high time to say goodbye to the stereotype “Russian wine is cheap wine.” The simplest sparkling wine from the “basic” lines costs 650-700 rubles, and those who want something more original – say, made using the classical method (like French champagne from Champagne) and sparkling from local grape varieties – will have to pay at least 1,300 rubles.

“If you love it, take it right away,” the seller advises. – This is the last delivery, most likely there will be no more before the New Year. And the sparkling wine is now being snapped up.

The prices for still wines are the same. An ordinary red wine from “krasnostop” (a local Don grape variety) costs 1,200 rubles per bottle today, and wine from the same variety, but aged in a barrel and left for several years, tends to cost four thousand. Such prices, of course, are not surprising for aged premium wines – the average buyer is rather surprised by the fact that Russian wines can be premium.

The situation is similar on the shelves of a regular alcohol market – one that still sells imported wines from Italy, France and other countries. For 300 rubles you can buy a bottle of alcoholic soda, on which it is honestly written: “The drink is not wine” (but it will still clap cheerfully when the chimes strike). Prices for the simplest Russian sparkling wines start at 450 rubles, and a decent Italian prosecco costs at least 750 rubles.

The explanation here is very simple: excise taxes and duties are to blame. In July 2023, the Russian Government almost doubled import duties on wines from unfriendly countries – up to 20% (instead of 12.5%), but not less than $1.5 per liter. This means that foreign wines, especially European ones, immediately went up in price by about the same 20%. That prosecco, which previously could be bought for 500 rubles, today will cost 750. Average wines costing a thousand will not surprise anyone, although a year ago the cost was above average.

The measure is supposedly intended to support Russian winemaking… but even here everything is not easy. Because there is another initiative: in November 2023, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted in the third reading a bill that increases excise taxes on wine almost threefold from May 1, 2024 – instead of 34 rubles per liter, the excise tax will increase to 108 rubles. The rates will continue to rise. The bill amends the Tax Code of the Russian Federation and provides for an increase in excise taxes on wine in 2025 to 112 rubles. per liter, in 2026 – up to 116 rubles. The excise tax rate on sparkling wines will be even higher – 141 rubles. per liter in 2024 and then increasing. It is expected that this measure will help increase budget revenues from the sale of alcohol. And this initiative will affect absolutely all wines – no matter from South Africa or Crimea, from Tuscany or the Don Valley.

The prospects look bleak. Those who can be called gourmet consumers will continue to buy wine even at increased prices – well, maybe they will drink it a little less or choose options a little simpler. Well, those for whom the main thing in a drink is the degree, and not the nuances of taste, will switch to vodka and other drinks with great joy. And the task of “instilling a drinking culture in Russians,” which experts timidly talk about, will again remain impossible.