How much excise duty is there on a bottle of wine?

In 2026, a 0.75 litre bottle of wine carries roughly 36 euro cents in excise duty at an alcohol content of at most 8.5 percent, and roughly 72 euro cents above that.

The calculation: 0.75 litre is 0.0075 hectolitre. At 47.95 euros per hectolitre you arrive at 47.95 x 0.0075 = 0.36 euros. At 95.69 euros per hectolitre you arrive at 95.69 x 0.0075 = 0.72 euros.

Because the amount depends on the volume and the alcohol band, the excise duty is the same on every 0.75 litre bottle within the same band.

The Dutch wine excise duty is 47.95 euro per hectolitre for wine up to and including 8.5 percent alcohol and 95.69 euro per hectolitre for wine above that. These rates have applied since 1 January 2024.

• Up to and including 8.5 percent vol: 47.95 euro per hectolitre
• More than 8.5 percent vol: 95.69 euros per hectoliter

Article 10 of the Excise Duty Act names these two amounts. A fraction of a hectolitre is rounded arithmetically to two decimals.

Sparkling wine falls under the same excise rate per hectolitre as still wine. Only the alcohol content determines the band: up to and including 8.5 percent, or above.

The Dutch Customs excise rate list summarises wine in a single line, sparkling and non-sparkling together. A 12 percent bottle of champagne therefore carries the same 72 eurocents of excise duty as a still red wine of 12 percent.

Excise duty on wine is levied per hectolitre and per alcohol band, not on the retail price. Two bottles with the same volume and the same alcohol content therefore carry the same excise duty, whatever they cost.

VAT works differently. The standard rate of 21 percent is calculated on the price including excise duty, so on an amount that already contains the excise duty.

Alcoholic drinks are not counted as foodstuffs in Table I of the Turnover Tax Act 1968. That is why wine falls under 21 percent and not under the reduced rate of 9 percent.

The wine excise duty was not changed in 2026 and is still at the rates of 1 January 2024. No new amount per hectolitre has been set for this year.

The government proposes to let the alcohol excise duty rise annually with inflation from 1 January 2027, as calculated by Statistics Netherlands (CBS). That proposal still has to pass the House of Representatives and the Senate and may therefore still change.

In the shop on the Brink in Bathmen there are 35 wines with 8.5 percent alcohol or less. Those fall in the low band of 47.95 euro per hectolitre.

The entire wine range in Bathmen comes to 1,078 bottles. The sparkling wines above 8.5 percent make up a selection of 92 bottles from 43 brands and 8 countries, with alcohol levels from 10.5 to 13.5 percent. They all fall in the band of 95.69 euro per hectolitre, so 72 euro cents per 0.75 litre bottle.

• France: 44 bottles
• Italy: 28 bottles
• Spain: 10 bottles
• Argentina: 4 bottles
• England: 2 bottles
• Germany: 2 bottles

Wilt u weten in welke band een bepaalde fles valt, dan kijken wij het alcoholpercentage voor u na. Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar (NIX18).