There are now several sites on the internet that offer Catalan wines at unbelievable prices. Well the old adage “if it seems too good to be true…” certainly applies in this case. These businesses operate from elsewhere in Europe, often from Spain, and ship anonymous parcels to the UK in the hope of evading customs. Customs have every right to seize your shipment of wine and at best, charge you the duty and VAT payable, or worst case you will never see your wine again.

The law is quite clear. Anyone who ships wine in to the UK must have a local organisation to declare the wine and pay any duties due. By buying from these outlets you would be helping break the law. In the meantime you would also be assisting putting hard working UK companies like us out of business.

If you don’t like to pay the exorbitant duty and tax that the UK government levies on wine (and who does) please lobby your MP to change the law, rather than helping those who just bypass it to the detriment of law abiding folk like ourselves.

I am sure you, like us, have been troubled to see the scenes of violent confrontation in the media as the Catalans attempt to hold a vote on the proposal to become an independent country. We do not take sides in the debate, but we do support the right of Catalans both pro and anti independence to have a free and fair vote on this issue. To be legal this would require the rest of Spain to grant the right in a revision to the constitution.

We call on both sides to start a dialog to resolve this situation. The answer does not lie either in deploying illegal voting processes or in riot police coshing old ladies.