'Green levy' to be put on chilled champagne

The Government is planning to mitigate the damage caused by adding VAT to pasties by introducing a new ‘green’ tax on chilled champagne. A Green Paper leaked today proposes a ‘Thermal Reduction Initiative (Champagne)’ that would add a nine per cent duty to all chilled champagne sold in public places. If implemented, the average price of a bottle sold in a restaurant would rise from £37.50 to £40.86.

Chancellor Gideon Osborne plans to present this as an environmental measure. Experts agree that champagne is best served at about 43 to 48F (6 to 7C). This can be achieved by placing a room-temperature bottle in a fridge on a medium setting for three to four hours. However, this increases the carbon footprint of the typical wine bar by 0.05 per cent. Multiplied many times over the course of a typical evening, the Green Paper argues, this is a significant amount.



According to the Government, some establishments in the City of London, and in Alderley Edge, the Cheshire village infamous as a playground for footballers’ wives, use as much energy chilling champagne in a single evening as a medium-size hospital expends on light and heating. Serving warm champagne, says No 10, is good for the environment.

The TRIC attack on champagne drinkers could be seen as a political manoeuvre to counter angry concerns that the ‘pasty tax’ was an upper-class assault on a working-class snack. But the sight of ten crates of champagne being delivered to No 11 Downing Street ahead of the ‘bubbly tax’ is unlikely to convince voters that ‘we’re all in this together’. The Liberal Democrats say that they have always been against the levy – but claim they successfully lobbied their Coalition partners to exempt Pomagne and Babycham.