The final straw

In an unanticipated side-effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, shops in Glasgow have been forced to stop selling Buckfast, the iconic tonic wine made by Benedictine monks in Devon which is popular on the west coast of Scotland, as supplies have dwindled.

“It’s really bad,” Whiteinch-based shop owner, Sobhan Rashid, told the Glasgow Times. “At the start in the cash and carry there was a limit on how many cases you could buy, but now they aren’t selling it anymore. Where my shop is there are lots of factories and warehouses and people get a half bottle on the way home – it’s what they like to drink. But there’s nothing we can do if the factory is shut.”

With reports of some shop owners profiteering by charging £10 a bottle rather than the recommended £8, there are reports of regular drinkers sourcing the tonic wine from south of the border, a situation described as a “nightmare” by Buckfast sales manager Stewart Wilson.