If you’ve started buying fine wine seriously, you’ll have come across two prices for the same bottle. One looks low, the other looks reasonable, and the merchant assumes you know the difference. You probably do, broadly. But the detail is where buyers either save money or quietly lose it.
Here is the plain version.
What “In Bond” actually means
A wine held In Bond sits in an HMRC-approved bonded warehouse and has not yet had UK duty or VAT applied to it. Title to the wine moves between buyers and sellers without the duty clock starting. As long as the wine stays in bond, it stays free of those charges.
At Morgan Classic Wines, In Bond stock typically sits at London City Bond. Other established bonded warehouses include Octavian, EHD and LCB’s regional sites. The warehouse holds the wine on behalf of the named owner, with insurance, climate control and a verified provenance trail. Each case is tracked by a unique rotation number, which follows the wine across owners and locations and is the trade’s reference of record when buying or selling specific stock.
When you buy In Bond, the price you see does not include UK duty or VAT. Duty is charged on the wine’s alcohol content: at February 2026 rates a dozen 75cl bottles at 13.5% ABV carries £37.20, and most still wines fall between about £34 and £40 a dozen. VAT is 20% on the wine value plus duty. You pay both only when the wine leaves bond.
What “Duty Paid” means
Duty Paid wine has cleared bond. The duty has been paid, and VAT is charged on the full price including duty. The wine is yours to take home, drink tonight, or have delivered to your door.
Duty Paid stock typically lives in a non-bonded part of the same warehouse, or at the merchant’s premises. It moves on standard couriers rather than between bond accounts.
The cost difference, with numbers
Take a 12 x 75cl case priced at £600 ex-VAT, bought new and delivered to a UK address.
In Bond: you pay £600. That’s it, until you take the wine out of bond.
Duty Paid (UK delivered): for a wine at 13.5% ABV, you pay £600 + £37.20 duty + 20% VAT on the £637.20 total = £764.64.
These figures apply to a new purchase released for delivery. The position is different (and better) if you already own the wine and are releasing it from your own bond account, more on that below.
That £165 gap is the entire point of buying In Bond. If you are storing the wine to drink later, to sell on, or to ship overseas, paying duty and VAT now is money lost. If you want to drink the wine in the next month, the gap is just the cost of having the bottle in your hand. Storage and insurance for In Bond stock add a small annual cost on top, covered further down.
A few buyers think In Bond is “cheaper”. It isn’t. It’s the same wine without two charges that you may not need to pay yet, or ever.
When In Bond makes sense
You’re buying for the cellar, not the table. If the wine has five or fifteen years to run before drinking, paying duty and VAT now is dead money. You can always release later.
You’re buying with a view to selling. Wines traded between collectors and merchants almost always change hands In Bond. A Duty Paid case has a smaller resale market and the duty cannot be recovered.
You’re shipping abroad. Exports leave UK bond directly without ever attracting UK duty or VAT. The wine pays the duty rate of its destination country, which for many markets is lower than the UK rate.
You don’t have suitable home storage. A 13°C bonded warehouse beats a kitchen cupboard for any wine you intend to keep more than a year or two.
When Duty Paid makes sense
You want to drink it. The wine is mature, or close to it, and waiting for a bond release is a nuisance.
The wine is being delivered as a gift. Your recipient is not going to want to fill out a release form.
You’re buying small volumes for the table and the duty saving on a single case is not worth the added paperwork.
You’re an overseas buyer collecting in person. Some scenarios genuinely do call for cleared, ready-to-go stock.
How wine moves out of bond
Releasing wine from bond is straightforward but not instant. You instruct the merchant or warehouse, the duty and VAT are calculated and invoiced, you pay, and a few working days later the wine is either delivered or available for collection.
There is one rule that catches new buyers out: once duty has been paid on a case, you cannot put it back into bond. The decision to release is one-way. So if you’re unsure, leave it.
A nuance worth knowing if you’re releasing wine you already own. Duty is due at the rate in force on the day of release. VAT is charged on what you originally paid for the wine In Bond, plus the duty and release costs, not on what the wine is worth today. A case bought at £400 five years ago and now trading at £1,000 attracts VAT on £400, not £1,000. This is part of why holding wine In Bond stays efficient even for wines you eventually plan to drink yourself.
Storage and ongoing costs
In Bond storage at most reputable warehouses runs at roughly £12 to £15 per case per year, ex-VAT, with insurance charged on top as a small percentage of the wine’s value. That is a modest cost for the right wine and a meaningful cost for cheap wine. As a rule of thumb, if a case is worth less than about £200, the long-term storage maths starts to bite.
Wine you intend to drink within twelve months is usually better off Duty Paid and at home, in a wine fridge. Wine you intend to keep longer should stay In Bond.
Buying In Bond from Morgan Classic Wines
Most of our list is In Bond by default, held at LCB. We can transfer cases into a buyer’s existing bond account at any major UK warehouse, or hold the wine in our own account on your behalf. We can also release Duty Paid for UK delivery on request, with a five-case minimum.
Our minimum order is £250 ex-VAT for the UK and £1,000 ex-VAT for export. Prices on the list are GBP ex-VAT. Duty and VAT are added only when the wine is released.
If you’re new to In Bond buying and want a hand walking through the practicalities, get in touch and we’ll talk it through. The aim is for you to know exactly what you’re paying for and why.