The easy way to buy wine for your wedding reception 

Buying your wedding reception wine in France can save you serious money. Following Brexit, it is still possible to bring back sufficient quantities of wine and sparkling wine for a wedding, while taking advantage of the tax exemption: 15% saving on the prices in France. We offer a stunning, curated selection of wines. And when it comes to advice, we are well aware of British tastes and can help with food and wine pairing ideas and choices. A visit to the in-store wine tasting bar allows the bride and groom to select the best wine for the menu they have in mind for their memorable event. 

Choose your wedding wine yourself

All soon-to-be newlyweds look forward to their weddings with great anticipation – the most beautiful day of your life. You want to choose and to select and purchase your wine yourself. And for this, there is nothing like a visit to the country of wine to find good advice and then make substantial savings on your purchases. Calais Vins and Olivier Vins et Cie, both located just five minutes from the ports or the Eurotunnel terminal in Calais, are the two closest wine ¬shops in France to the UK. (lien page how to get there ? )

How do you decide how much wine you will need for your wedding?

According to the wedding calculator, to find out how many bottles of wine to buy, you need to divide the number of guests by 2.15. So, imagine a wedding with 100 guests, you would need 46 bottles of wine. 

As for sparkling wine or champagne, you need to divide the number of guests by seven. For 100 guests, you will need 14 bottles. But by why scrimp? Let’s call in 20! 

Following Brexit, there are restriction on how much alcohol can be imported duty free?

The UK allowance allows you to buy 18 litres of wine per person, or 24 bottles of 75cl. It also allows you to buy nine litres of champagne or sparkling wine, or 12 bottles of 75cl. If you are having a wedding with 100 guests, you only need two people to bring back plenty for your wedding. 

In the table below, we will see how much wine and champagne you need to buy for a given number of guests, and how many people need to travel to Calais Vins to not exceed your allowances.

Significant savings on wedding wines compared to the UK.

Calais Vins and Olivier Vins & Cie have set up a seamless VAT refund system (lien page claim the vat back). Any traveller with a UK passport is entitled to claim a VAT refund if they meet the duty-free allowance. But not all shops offer duty free. 

Lower taxes on your wedding wine in France

The UK is known for having some of the highest tax rates on alcohol. The tax on a bottle of wine with an alcohol content of 5.5-15% is £2.97 for a 75cl and £3.81 on Champagne. As you might expect, of the countries levying a wine tax, by far the lowest rate can be found in a country well-known for its wine: France levies a tax of only €0.03 per bottle. For example, for a £10 bottle of French wine – the sort of money that would get you a real ‘gem’– you would pay at least £15 in the UK. 

And to make the most of your wine escapade, we are eager to welcome our customers to our tasting cellar. For expert advice on food and wine pairings, just ask our expert team (lien page team); we know our wines and, keen anglophiles, we also know well the tastes of our British customers. A curated grape escape.