I'm about 6 weeks late to this, but you should have had an email from them on 19th January detailing what they expect the extra costs to be.
Many of you have asked about the new rules and we share below all the information we have:
The products are now VAT excluded in our store and upon arrival it’s subject to the local 20% VAT tax.
All non-alcoholic products, the ones in our gourmet area, aren’t subject to any additional duty.
The alcoholic products are subject to excise duty and for wines up to 15% alcohol volume it’s 297.57 GBP per hectoliter, 2.23 GBP per bottle of 750ml and twice for a magnum bottle.
Sparkling wines have a different excise, it’s 381.15 GBP per hectoliter so it should be 2.86 GBP per bottle of 750ml.
A fortified wine such as a Port Wine will take 396.72 GBP per hectoliter so it’s 2.97 GBP per bottle of 750ml
As for spirits such as a Brandy or Gin, it will be 28.74 GBP per liter of alcohol volume, so if it’s a 40% alc. volume and a 700ml bottle, it should be 8.05 GBP.
Finally, the beers have a low excise. It’s 19.08 GBP per liter of alcohol, so it means that for a 5% alc. volume beer and 330ml bottle, it should be 0.31 GBP.
One of our best sellers to the UK market, the Vidigal Porta 6, before the BREXIT at 3.60 GBP plus shipping, it will be now 3.19 GBP plus 2.23 GBP excise and 20% VAT tax, so a total of 6.50 GBP per bottle.
The shipping cost is the same in terms of transport cost but it takes per order an extra fee of 9.79 GBP for the exportation customs dispatch so it means that if you buy more than one case of 12 bottles, you will save money since it’s a flat fee per order and not per case.
In the end a bottle of Vidigal Porta 6 that in the past was around 4.7 GBP with all taxes and shipping included, will be now between 7 and 8 GBP depending on the number of bottles ordered.
This information is very important because if a client refuses to pay the importation duties, the parcels will return to us and we will have to deduct the return costs to the value paid for the order.
The transit time to the UK is not yet stable because there are some delays in the customs clearance but this means also that some parcels can reach you without the payment of the local duties and taxes.
I used to order from portugalvineyards.com, but I will probably now buy from the Wine Society's Portuguese offerings instead.