WITH Christmas around the corner, could a Calais booze cruise still save you money in this post-Brexit era? Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham – alcohol experts known as The Thinking Drinkers – went on a trip to find out . . .
The booze cruise has long been a British tradition – we’ve been benefiting from lower French alcohol taxes for decades.
Before Brexit, you could fill your boots.
You could also fill your backseats and roof-racks because — providing you could prove all the cases in your car were for personal consumption — you could bring back up to 160 bottles of wine, 110 litres of beer (nearly 200 pints) and ten litres of spirits (around 14 bottles).
However, when the UK left the European Union in 2021, these allowances shrank severely and booze cruises sobered up.
Five years on, the number of thirsty Brits crossing the Channel is on the rise due to decent discounts in duty free and — helped by a little-used VAT loophole — genuine bargains in French wine shops.
Of the three ferry companies operating from Dover to Calais, we found DFDS offered the best duty-free drink deals, both on-board and at its huge port shop, where shoppers can enjoy up to 50 per cent off UK High Street prices.
If you spend £150 on the ferry, or €150 in the port shop, you get a free day trip to use in the future.
Spend €250 and you get a ten per cent discount, while those who stretch to €350 can claim 20 per cent off their booze bill — AND receive a day trip to use another time.
The duty-free shop sells loads of recognised brands available in the UK, ranging from Whispering Angel and 19 Crimes to Guinness, Birra Moretti and Captain Morgan.
Packing our trolley with a single person’s allowance, including several premium brands, the bill came to £921, but the DFDS 20 per cent discount reduced that to £736.80 — a saving of £184.20.
When compared with the cheapest prices at UK supermarkets and online retailers, the cost represented a saving of just over 43 per cent — and that was before the discounts on perfume, toys and tobacco.
The company’s Reserve & Collect service meant we could pre- purchase everything online from home, days before we left Dover, then pick up the cases before embarking on our return journey.
It’s a wine lover’s paradise, with aisle after aisle of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Sancerre and rose wines ranging from a £2.46 bottle of basic red to Premier Cru Champagne costing more than £1,200.
This freed up plenty of time for us to explore some of Calais’ specialist wine shops, one of which is Calais Vins, a ten-minute drive from the ferry port.
It’s a wine lover’s paradise, with aisle after aisle of Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Sancerre and rose wines ranging from a £2.46 bottle of basic red to Premier Cru Champagne costing more than £1,200.
Nearly all the wines are French, but there are English-speaking sommeliers instore to guide bamboozled Brits towards some superb value-for-money “vins”.
They’ll even open bottles for customers to taste.
Calais Vins co-founder Jerome Pont says: “We’ve worked with some of our vineyards for more than 20 years.
WE ARE SAVING
- Cost of trip £132
- Cost of booze on trip: £1,411
- Saving on booze: £755.22
- Total saving: £623.22
“These aren’t wines you’ll find in British supermarkets — but the prices are around 40 per cent cheaper than wines of equivalent quality in the UK.”
Jerome has seen a steady rise in British customers.
“It’s a different traveller than before,” he said. “They come for a day or a weekend, to enjoy the city and pick up wines they can’t find at home.”
Our cart, packed with still and sparkling wines, came to just under £390. But before we left, Jerome took a further 15 per cent off the price — because Brits don’t have to pay VAT in France.
After taking our names, passports and credit card details, Jerome handed us a tax-free form, complete with barcode, that we later scanned at a special kiosk located at the port.
If customs officials find you’ve bought even one more bottle than you’re allowed to, you must pay the duty on your entire haul rather than just the excess amount.
It took less than five minutes to do and the refund, worth £59.78, was back on our credit card within five days.
With the VAT reclaimed, we spent £330 at Calais Vins on 24 bottles of wine and a six-bottle case each of Champagne and sparkling wine — by no means bargain-basement booze, but great value for money for top-notch wines.
What’s more, up until the end of the year, Calais Vins are sweetening the deal further with a “Grape Escape” day trip offer.
Spend €300 online and pay a credit card deposit of €60, and the store will send you a booking reference code for a free return ferry trip with P&O.
But however you do it, be careful not to go above your allowance. You can bring back up to 42 litres of beer, 18 litres of still wine and either four litres of spirits or nine litres of sparkling or fortified wine.
But if customs officials find you’ve bought even one more bottle than you’re allowed to, you must pay the duty on your entire haul rather than just the excess amount.
So is the modern-day booze cruise worth it?
Absolutely — whether you’re a cork-sniffing wine buff or bargain booze hunter.
There are still substantial steals and deals to be had, particularly if you factor in ferry company and Calais wine shop offers, plan the trip properly, pre-order . . . and pack the car with military precision.
GO: FRANCE BY FERRY
GETTING THERE: A day trip return from Dover to Calais with DFDS averages around £80 per vehicle including up to four passengers.
See dfds.com.