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Move over Darling! It used to be considered gentlemanly not to kick someone when they were down. However these rules do not seem to apply to the man with the big bushy eyebrows – is he the illegitimate son of Denis Healey?!

So we have a huge hike in the budget hitting all areas of the wine trade and a promise to increase taxes further to 2% above inflation for the next 4 years. Let’s hope he uses the absurd government figure of 2% inflation which, for those of us who have to shop for food, fill up the car, heat our house and pay mundane everyday bills, is just a joke. It is time, Mr Darling, that you broke out of your cocoon at Westminster and joined the real world. So now you hit booze again with not a mention of binge drinkers but just a tax on middle-aged middle England because your incompetent government is not capable of running the economy and we are considered a soft touch – again!

The tax increase comes on top of a disastrous Euro exchange rate, huge increases at source due to some very poor harvests in Europe and Australia, massive fuel surcharges and an increase in the cost of dry goods including glass. Be warned there will be big increases across the board that will affect the whole wine trade and we will all need to get used to the new order of things. Somehow The Oxford Wine Company is still able to sell some wine at under £3.99 but quite frankly you will need to pay much more to get anything with real complexity.

So the fact that there have been no price increases from the Domaine de la Souterranne (my vineyard interest) makes these wines massively attractive in the light of other increases ranging from 50p to £1.00 a bottle. Selling at £6.65 inc. VAT by the case we are introducing a Chardonnay / Viognier blend to run alongside the Merlot whilst the very small production of Old Vine Carignan remains our flagship at £8.55 by the case. We have planted some Syrah too which in a few years will give us much more versatility whilst at the same time remaining true to the traditions of the Languedoc. With so much poor quality French wine on the market we have struck lucky by having award-winning Australian Dave Morrison as our winemaker and the much travelled oenologist Raphael Genot as his assistant. It may be the smallest project they have ever been involved in but their ability to make good wine from good grapes (we have done a lot of work in the vineyard this year) is paramount. The wines have been entered again in the main prestigious wine competitions and we hope to improve on the 'Commended' we received last year.

Am I alone in being confused? Not long ago the headlines were encouraging us to drink wine. Not a week went by without some fresh article extolling the health-giving properties of red in particular. It was as if your doctor was prescribing a couple of glasses a night. Suddenly however we hear just the opposite. Women apparently have a 60% increased risk of breast cancer if they drink just a glass a night, men are at risk of hypertension and high blood pressure and both have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease! I do wonder if this is simply a government plot. We’ll just scare the public into drinking less and ignore the fact that our city centres are no-go areas full of rampaging drunken yobs. If the extra revenue Mr Darling has raised was spent on our police force and social awareness projects we might have some sympathy, but the fact is that this money will only be used to prop up yet another of this government’s tin pot initiatives.

Rest easy though. The Blogcritics magazine states that “two glasses daily is the optimum sweet spot for those interested in achieving the maximum benefit for the heart. At this level people can still benefit from the HDL (good) cholesterol raising effect and anti-coagulant properties of alcohol.”

So try not to raise your blood pressure and treat this tax hike as a saving in prescription charges!