Is Wetherspoons really banning champagne because of Brexit?

Pub chain will replace some European drinks
with home-grown alternatives from 9 July

One-Minute Read

Instead of French champagnes, from 9 July punters at the chain’s
880 pubs will be quaffing sparkling wine grown on the Denbies wine
estate in Surrey.

In a nod to the renewed importance of Britain’s
Commonwealth trade partners, Australian sparkling chardonnay will
also be on the menu.

Luckily for prosecco-lovers, the pub chain has
not announced any plans to stop serving the Italian
bubbly.

However, it does plan to phase out its German wheat beers,
replacing them with home-grown brews.

Swedish cidermaker Kopparberg escaped the chop, after
the company “confirmed that it will be producing its cider in the
UK post-Brexit”, The Guardian reports. Other existing contracts
with EU suppliers will be honoured until they expire.

JD Wetherspoons founder Tim Martin has been a vocal proponent of
Brexit and has “repeatedly suggested that leaving the EU will allow
the pub to sell more cheap alcohol from outside the continent”,
The Independent reports.

Announcing the change, Martin said that the
“inevitable” increase in trade beyond the EU will lower costs for
consumers. “The products we are now introducing are at lower prices
than the EU products they are replacing,” he said.

However, the motive for the switch is probably financial as well
as political.

Drinks industry website Imbibe reported in March that champagne sales
to the UK have slumped for the second year in a row, as the falling
value of the pound makes imported wines less attractive to British
pubs and bars.

“Earlier this year, pub group Fullers said its
decision to replace house champagnes with English sparkling wines
had paid off, resulting in a 50% gain in sparkling wine sales at
that price level, and a five-fold surge in sales of English
sparkling,” the site reports.