Here’s some alarming news from the restaurant coalface. It appears that many restaurants and bars have adopted the habit of asking wine suppliers about the nature of their liquor licence. With the WET reduction achieved in this year’s Federal Budget about to come into play, it’s become abundantly clear that the objectives of the Federal Government and the wine industry are about to be thwarted. Wine suppliers about to receive the WET exemption are being asked by the operators of on-premise licences to let them share in the benefit. In other words, they are insisting that the wineries reduce their selling price. The rebate of the 29% tax is therefore anything but guaranteed to hit its mark. With the present surplus of wine, it will take a brave – and possibly foolhardy – wine producer not to succumb to the threats being delivered. Wine, of course, has never been harder to sell than it is today.
