What does Brexit have to do with the increase in wine sales in Great Britain?

Brits are now allowed to drink like Winston Churchill again.

The Government announced in December that it would allow shops and taverns to sell pints of wine, said to be Churchill's favorite amount of champagne.

It is a side effect of Brexit, Britain's official departure from the European Union in 2020, after which, among other things, the country no longer had to conform to European standards for weights and measures.

In announcing the introduction of pint-sized wine bottles, Britain's Conservative government boasted that the move was part of the country's “new Brexit freedoms.”

Beer, wine and spirits are sold across borders, and although the liquids may not change from one country to another, their packaging sometimes does, according to measurements established centuries ago by governments trying to regulate their sale. Most standard bottles of wine hold 750 milliliters, or about five glasses, but there are other options as well.

Britain's traditional imperial system of measurements was codified in 1824, standardizing the gallon, pound, and yard. The British Government began introducing the metric system voluntarily in 1965, but after the country joined the European Economic Community, manufacturers had to display metric measurements in addition to the traditional imperial ones.

The imperial pint – 568 milliliters – was one of Britain's most treasured traditional measures.

Its closest approximation during the years in the EU was the 500 milliliter bottle, which holds about three glasses of wine. Those bottles are still common in British stores.

After Brexit, the British Government began a review of which European regulations it would reverse. The pint of wine announcement came after about 100,000 people responded to a government consultation on whether they wanted to more broadly return to the outdated imperial measurement system (which uses inches, miles and gallons instead of meters, kilometers and liters), which has not been in official use for decades.

In an interview with the Daily Mail in 2019, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson said using the imperial system was an “ancient freedom.”

The Government said it had decided against legislative measures after only 1.3 percent of respondents said they would be open to the return of the imperial system. So while Britain will continue to use the metric system for other foods and drinks, the pint-sized wine bottle is something of a symbolic gesture.

Flaunting the country’s “long and proud history” with imperial measures, the Government promised that the extra 68 milliliters of wine would “help drive innovation, increase trading freedoms and improve choice for consumers”.

But will it be so?

A 568 milliliter bottle of wine could only be sold in the British market, which is smaller than many European countries. Therefore, it is unclear how many wine producers will opt for measurement.

But at least one Briton might have welcomed the change. A witty remark attributed to Churchill was that a pint of champagne was just “enough for two at lunch and one at dinner.”

By: Claire Moses