‘Pints’ of wine to be sold in Britain for the first time
5681 Min Read
Britons will soon be able to buy a “pint” of wine, with a new 568ml bottle set to appear on supermarket shelves and in pubs, clubs and restaurants.
Pint bottles of champagne were sold in the UK before Britain joined the European Common Market, and remained on shelves until 1973.
However, their production ceased because they did not comply with EU weight and measure rules.
Now, some 900 UK vineyards – which produce 12.2 million bottles of still or sparkling wine a year – are set to benefit from new post-Brexit “freedoms”, the government has said.
The changes will also allow new quantities of both pre-packed still and sparkling wine – in bottles or cans – to be sold in 200ml and 500ml quantities alongside the new 568ml “pint” quantity.
Currently, still wine cannot be sold in 200ml quantities and sparkling wine cannot be sold in 500ml amounts.
The standard size of a bottle of wine sold in supermarkets, off-licences, pubs and bars is 750ml. Legally, pubs must sell wine in small (125ml), medium (175ml) or large (250ml) glass sizes.
There will be no legal obligation for businesses to sell the new sizes.
The changes have been introduced following a government consultation on units of measurement, which was published in June last year and received more than 100,000 responses.
The consultation also considered government proposals to remove the requirement to show metric units alongside imperial or allow them to be shown in less prominence.
