The British booze cruise to France is booming regardless of Remoaners’ Brexit forecast

Dan Compton and Nick Binney are harbouring a secret. It’s one they’ve identified about for years. They’ve tried telling their associates about it, however none of them purchase it – it sounds too good to be true.

The secret? The nice British booze cruise, which as soon as noticed hordes of thirsty Brits dashing throughout the Channel in pursuit of high-end wines at cut price basement costs, is again.

In reality, it seems it by no means went away and reviews of its demise have been considerably untimely.

We meet Dan and Nick within the queue for a ferry from Dover to Calais standing by Dan’s somewhat luxurious wanting Jaguar XE. He clearly has costly tastes.

Dan, who has been travelling to France to high up his assortment of tipples for the reason that early Nineties, explains how he and Nick grew to become booze-cruising mates.

He says: “Our kids went to school together. I’ve done it for decades, I always used to come over.

“I just said to Nick ‘oh, I do this booze run’ and everyone always used to go to me ‘oh, why do you bother?’ and I’d say well ‘I save fifty per cent’.”

Unlike many of Dan’s other friends, Nick, who’s now retired but was a wealthy foreign exchange trader, knows good value when he sees it. It was, after all, his job.

And good value booze-cruising appears to be alive and well – despite countless death notices over the last 15 years where a weak pound, cheap prices in British supermarkets and then Brexit were all credited with having rendered the exercise pointless.

One store the Express visited, the aptly named Calais Wine Superstore, is at such pains to remind its Anglo customer base of the savings on offer, that it prints how much you’ve avoided paying on your receipt.

For Hampshire resident Dan, 24 bottles of wine and 12 bottles of fizz comes to £321.48 (€374.88).

Back in Blighty, such a hefty haul would have set him back a hell of a lot more. £601.74 more, to be precise. Dan’s well-kept secret has saved him a small fortune.

Scepticism about the viability of the booze cruise, which admittedly is probably some 30 years past its heyday, may well be down to Brexit myth-making.

In January 2021, the rules on how much you could take back across the Channel were tightened. Hard-core wine guzzlers could no longer carry back as much as their car suspensions would allow.

Customers are now limited to 24 bottles of wine, 12 bottles of bubbles, 42 litres of beer – that’s 14 cases of 12 25cl cans – and four litres of spirits and liquors.

That’s still enough to keep most of us going for weeks, if not months, and the quota is personal rather than for the whole party.

Anne and Mark from Wokingham in Berkshire, who are stopping off at the store on the way home from Spain, point out that for anyone vaguely resembling your average drinker the personal allowance of cut-price poison is plenty.

Asked if the quota was unduly restrictive, Mark explains: “It’s not, especially as it’s per person, so if four people came over you could take home 100 bottles of wine – 96 actually.”

Savvy booze cruisers from additional afield than the south of England are additionally lapping up the reductions.

Michael Strother, 48, and his spouse Suzanne, 45, have travelled to Calais from Blackpool to take advantage of a budget and cheerful costs and aren’t in any respect postpone by the private allowance.

Suzanne, who works in grownup schooling, says: “This was a trial run and we’re staying here until Saturday, then we’re heading back. It’s worth the trip.”

Michael, who works for the town’s well-known illuminations, provides: “You might just sit there thinking ‘shall I? Shall I?’ – just go and do it.”

The pair mentioned they have been incorporating the booze run into their vacation and subsequent time would deliver their kids.

“We’ll come back and we’ll make more of a holiday of it with the kids, maybe branch out a bit further to somewhere else, maybe to Dunkirk.”

Suzanne chimed in: “As we’re getting older, the kids are grown up now, it’s a chance to come out.”

The couple, who’ve arrived on the wine mecca of their Winnebago, spend £111 on their fill, which might have price them £269 again house, in accordance with their receipt.

As properly as {couples}, teams of lads additionally take the time to pop in to fill up.

Rob, in contrast to lots of the different punters Express speaks to, wasn’t planning on stopping in, however he and his mates, en route again from a biking tour of the Alps, are early for his or her practice and so they resolve to take the chance to select up some bargains.

He reveals that regardless of not planning a visit to the wine vendor, he is been booze-hunting right here earlier than.

Rob, from Tadworth in Surrey, says from the superstore automobile park as his buddy masses their orange Ford van: “I was probably anywhere from 20 to 25-years-old coming over for a gold trip actually… and decided to stop in here. I can’t even remember what I bought it was that long ago. But, yeah it was a while back, but the layout is exactly the same.

“I’d fully forgotten it was right here and the lads have been like ‘the place are we going to cease’ and I Google mapped it. I did not comprehend it on the time till we pulled up [and] I believed ‘maintain on a minute, I recognise that’.

Showing off his haul he says: “I’ve got 10 bottles of wine and my friend’s got two cases.”

He provides that the financial savings are “really good” and that he “certainly can’t complain”, suggesting Brits ought to take into consideration making a visit over the Channel in the event that they’re “having a party” or dropping by in the event that they’re heading some other place in France.

Thierry Leprêtre, a director and shareholder of the superstore admits that the summer time instantly after the Brexit vote was the most important his firm, established in 1993, had ever seen.

Such was the nervousness amongst price-conscious alcohol aficionados that the vote to depart would see the good British booze cruise sink, that many flocked to the French ports to seize as a lot plonk as they may.

But Thierry insists that the post-Brexit restrictions actually are all bark and no chew, and fears Brits postpone by the prospect of curbs on their carry-home are “missing out”.

For these which can be hell-bent on loading a automobile or van filled with booze, Thierry’s recommendation is to “come with more people” because the restrictions are “easy to get around” with sufficient manpower.

What’s extra, punters can reap the benefits of the “free ferry” fare which the superstore offers for these spending greater than £300.

Shoppers can then reclaim the 15 per cent VAT once they cross again into Britain, offering they’ve spent over £100.

Thierry speculates that essentially the most anybody has spent within the retailer was round £2,000, which might have saved that huge spender “about £800 compared to UK prices”.

He accepts the variety of Brits cashing in is a far cry from what the likes of Calais and Boulogne skilled pre-millennium.

Besides the Superstore and native rivals Pidou, the Euro Discount Liquor Store and different smaller operators, the large gamers have lengthy since upped sticks and moved on, with out sufficient Brits in a position to quench their mixed monetary thirst.

Tesco and Sainsbury’s each closed their French doorways in 2010 because of the relative power of the euro.

But Thierry says throughout summer time weekends between 60 and 80 buyers nonetheless come via the door, “95 per cent” from the UK. He estimates that some 250 to 300 clients, by comparability, would have made the journey every equal weekend on the top of the booze cruise craze.

Despite the discount in clients, the cabinets stay as well-stocked as ever.

And Thierry and his rivals will probably be hoping the key will not keep a secret for lengthy.