Good quality wine in Thailand is practically speaking banned unless you are very rich. This is due to the taxes and how they are applied to imported wine here. 400% of the base cost of wine in the country of origin. The wine that is widely available is often poorly storred lowering the quality further. Example, picture 1. - Faustino VII a white Spanish table wine that retails in Spain for circ 3.5 euros or 125 THB. Picture 2. Faustino VII with Thailand import label now a yellow Spanish table wine of highly dubious taste if opened for 799 THB on sale in Villa Market Pattaya. This is a wine I have seen 100s to times in supermarkets in Spain and have never seen a yellow bottle on sale before.
Wine is accepted globally as an intergral part of quality cuisine. In Thailand the obscene levels of tax on wine make Thailand a desert when it comes to quality dinning, enjoying a nice bottle of wine with your meal of for its own sake with friends. To put my assertion into perspective, a nice bottle of wine can be purchased in many European countries for circa 20 Euros, say 40 Euros in a restaturant (1,500 THB). In Thailand a Faustino VII type wine will commonly attract the same price tag with a meal. As things stand a quality wine, which is not normally available, might cost 9,000 THB using the same mark-ups. So why drink wine when 9,000 would buy 5 bottles of Jonnie Walker Black in a good Thai restaturant. Clearly any argument that the tax is to discourage alchohol consumption on health grounds is false. Taxing good wine out of Thailand is a very poor choice and in no way makes Thailand a more attractive destination.
Looking at the tax levels being protectionist; Thailand does not and is not likely ever to produce good quality wines. Thailand has a couple of winerys, one near Pattaya and one further north. The wine from the winery near Pattaya is palatable (as opposed to good), but they only have five wines.
As I see it The Thai government needs to rethink how it taxes imported wine and importers need to rethink how they store the product in transit and on arrival. If Thailand took their current tax take from wine and divided by total bottles imported (rather than taxing bottles based on price at origin) then higher quality wine could be brought at lower cost. More would be imported and sold as quality improved increasing total tax revenue. Thailand would become more attractive to visitors and residents alike.
Good Wine why is it banned in Thailand
in Western Food in Thailand
Posted
Good quality wine in Thailand is practically speaking banned unless you are very rich. This is due to the taxes and how they are applied to imported wine here. 400% of the base cost of wine in the country of origin. The wine that is widely available is often poorly storred lowering the quality further. Example, picture 1. - Faustino VII a white Spanish table wine that retails in Spain for circ 3.5 euros or 125 THB. Picture 2. Faustino VII with Thailand import label now a yellow Spanish table wine of highly dubious taste if opened for 799 THB on sale in Villa Market Pattaya. This is a wine I have seen 100s to times in supermarkets in Spain and have never seen a yellow bottle on sale before.
Wine is accepted globally as an intergral part of quality cuisine. In Thailand the obscene levels of tax on wine make Thailand a desert when it comes to quality dinning, enjoying a nice bottle of wine with your meal of for its own sake with friends. To put my assertion into perspective, a nice bottle of wine can be purchased in many European countries for circa 20 Euros, say 40 Euros in a restaturant (1,500 THB). In Thailand a Faustino VII type wine will commonly attract the same price tag with a meal. As things stand a quality wine, which is not normally available, might cost 9,000 THB using the same mark-ups. So why drink wine when 9,000 would buy 5 bottles of Jonnie Walker Black in a good Thai restaturant. Clearly any argument that the tax is to discourage alchohol consumption on health grounds is false. Taxing good wine out of Thailand is a very poor choice and in no way makes Thailand a more attractive destination.
Looking at the tax levels being protectionist; Thailand does not and is not likely ever to produce good quality wines. Thailand has a couple of winerys, one near Pattaya and one further north. The wine from the winery near Pattaya is palatable (as opposed to good), but they only have five wines.
As I see it The Thai government needs to rethink how it taxes imported wine and importers need to rethink how they store the product in transit and on arrival. If Thailand took their current tax take from wine and divided by total bottles imported (rather than taxing bottles based on price at origin) then higher quality wine could be brought at lower cost. More would be imported and sold as quality improved increasing total tax revenue. Thailand would become more attractive to visitors and residents alike.